Having juggled a busy life of work, mothering and housework, her ideas on canvas portray a snapshot of ordinary domestic life. Kitchen sinks with piled dishes, washing baskets, mops, brooms and vaccum cleaners, all take centre stage and delight the eye with humour, colour and imagination. But there is also a political statement, either subtle or wildly over the top that is integrated into the work.
“I’d rather paint a pile of dirty dishes, than have to wash them,” says Vee.
Housework has the harsh irony that people only notice when you neglect it. It is still not considered “work” to clean the house, and women in opposite-sex marriages continue to provide more care and household duties than men. Women frequently work two jobs: the paid job they go out to accomplish and the unpaid job they undertake at home. Items utilised for our daily chores at home become irrelevant and overlooked because housework is frequently viewed as a tedious chore. Vee challenges our perceptions of our homes by elevating the commonplace and the ordinary above these assumptions of status. In some of the works, she makes references to domestic abuse and the loneliness of being a single mother, highlighting the darker side of domestic life.