Meghan Wicks
Campus School

Pins with Messages

Meghan Wicks is the Administrative & Communications Coordinator for the Smith College Campus School. She is a maybe-not-so-funny (?) person (artist?),  Bravo historian—specializing in the Real Housewives canon, chronic earworm sufferer, Virgo, and Ikea furniture assembly expert (self-taught), not a hero.

Meghan describes herself as being a “touch socially delicate in demeanor,” noting that “creating meaningful relationships can be a tad daunting and anxiety-inducing.” In fact, her biggest takeaway from her first year of art school was that making friends is much harder than making things.

Meghan has long been drawn to the notion of creating accessible, affordable art. She started exploring this concept in college while majoring in printmaking. Prints evolved into postcards, postcards evolved into artist trading cards, and trading cards evolved into buttons. And buttons, she discovered, are a comfortable and manageable way to meet new people, especially those worth knowing.

Wearing a button (or as they may be known in other circles, “flair”) opens an optional, subtle conversational door. Once that conversational door is open, it’s less daunting to keep talking to the other person, and it gradually becomes easier both to talk and to listen.

For the last seven years, Meghan has been making buttons as both accessible, affordable art and as conversation openers. By inserting text and humor into the art she creates, she hopes that the concept behind the art is more tangible to the viewer. She wants people to laugh at what she makes and feels that sometimes people need to be given permission to laugh at art.

In these times, when our faces will likely be covered whenever we are in public, putting buttons on display gives an unspoken sentiment—it’s okay to still laugh, even when things are bleak and uncertain.

Instagram: @justsomebutts