Small Piece

A new small piece. It is a 3D collage of found items; skeleton, nail, wood, metal, and text with an encaustic coating.

Words Unspoken

A new assemblage. Wooden letters, paper mache face, and wax in a box.

Ety(ento)mology

Yes, that title is the name of the piece. Etymology is the study of words and their origins. Entomology is the study of insects. And as I mix those up frequently, I have created a piece that incorporates them both. Each section has an illustration of an insect that represents something in various cultures.

The first section has a moth which is a symbol of knowledge within the Yaqui Indians tribe of Mexico. Because of that, the moth illustration gets the skull and Cogito, Latin for "The intellectual processes of the self or ego."

The middle section has an illustration of a ladybug. In some Chinese folklore, seeing a ladybug means that finding love is likely. So the ladybug gets the rib cage that would house a heart. It also gets Sentio, Latin for "to feel".

The last section is a bee, a common symbol of industry and hard work. The gets the hands and the Latin word for "to make"; Facio.

And that is Ety(ento)mology. A way too-complicated meaning behind a simple piece. 

Gamayun

A second in my Mythological Creatures series, the Gamayun is from Russian folklore and is described as a "prophetic bird with the head of a woman".

My Gamayun began as a foam bird and a chunk of clay. I molded the lady head onto the bird body and was mildly impressed with my skills (I can't remember the last time I seriously worked with clay). 

I painted the clay to have her skin match the bird's belly tone and added some red doll hair to match the feathers. Although it is not super realistic, I am pretty happy with it. 

I attached her to a stick and attached the stick to a round wooden base. As with the Wendigo piece, I added a copper name plate to the base as well. 

Wendigo

This is the first piece in a new Mythological Creatures series. I'll be tagging them under the "Literary" category if you are searching by theme, since they are all based on stories. 

The Wendigo is a fairly common creature in folklore, originating from stories of the Algonquian people. It is supposedly what a human can turn into when he practices cannibalism for an extended period. While images of the Wendigo vary, they usually include elongated limbs and antlers.

Mine began as a small plastic skeleton. I added red clay to build up areas as skin and to hold things in place.

I added two twigs as antlers on his head.

He is affixed to a wooden circle base with a copper name plate.

I love the faux taxidermy element of this. It's like I snatched the little guy from the forest and mounted him on the pedestal. :D

Septiens

This piece is a simple encaustic fill collage. I was inspired by a metal "7" piece I had and a poem I found, "Seven" by Mr. Ed on Author's Den. Most of the poem is written and placed as the background.

"Septiens", adverb form of "seven" in Latin, is stamped onto a thin metal piece and filled with black paint.

It's been a while since I've wrapped things. I love the way wire and string look. So this piece is also wrapped in a thin copper wire.

Wonderland

A collection of objects and drawings that I've gathered over the years to finally create an "Alice in Wonderland" themed assemblage. I've been asked before to create an Alice piece, but I've never had the right inspiration to find the best composition. Inspired by the drawings in the background of my Lurking piece, I was able to make an assemblage with a neutral color palette and a minimalist composition.

The top section is a clear wax fill over a handwritten exerpt from the opening of the story with a pocket watch embedded. 

I used the same technique over a stamped background with embedded keys. 

Other objects such as doll legs, bottles, cards, keyholes, teacups, and natural materials were added in other sections. Plus that cute rabbit that I'm proud of. 

Grimm

this is a fairy tale themed assemblage. imagery is kind of predictable, but it's something i felt i needed to do. 8"x8".

Hollow Books

For me, the biggest compliment i could receive is someone saying that i have inspired them. so when a long time family friend of my fiance's, who is a very great and successful artist, messaged me and said that she was inspired by my work to finish a project that was years in the making, i was so excited! so i thought i would take a moment to share the work of Lindsey Heath.

She created 2 assemblages in hollow books using 2D and 3D elements. i love her use of thread and buttons in these pieces. i also love the she incorporated some of her own drawn artwork into the piece. she is very successful in minimalistic compositions, which is a weak area for me. i always seem to think my work is too bare or too plain, but she has a nice balance of positive and negative space here. gorgeous work!

what i love this week....

literature pieces! this piece was inspired by a pendant i found at Agnes the Red Gallery a year or so ago, pictured above. i love the simplicity of this piece and the use of found materials.

my piece was made with bundled newspaper as the base. i added some plastic sprockets and a metal "L". then i used glue and gold glitter for some swirls and dots (feeling very glittery at the moment). then i used some gold jewelry wire and the copper wire from inside the clocks to wrap the piece. it is all held together with a copper plate and some tie wire at the top. last, i used some brown suede cord to hang it.

this is a very different piece for me, i've never worked with paper before. but of course, it still has my style and is obviously a beth-like piece.