recently! (summer ’18)

working on assemblage for the October show

working on assemblage for the October show

pin and book set in the shop section of the site!

pin and book set in the shop section of the site!

an anniversary party on July sixth!

an anniversary party on July sixth!

a cover-up for Josie <3

a cover-up for Josie <3

two trips to the post office

two trips to the post office

self portrait

self portrait

flowers.

flowers.

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“gathering” show ending, Feb 2

show is ending. if you bought pieces you can pick them up; giveaway piece will be going out on the third, and the remaining pieces will be listed on our shop page for sale!

 

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Gathering, Art Opening, First Friday of December

Nature isn’t cruel or kind; it’s just hungry.

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"Phineas"

Statement for the collection, “Gathering”, which will be on display for First Friday in Kendall Yards in Spokane in December.

 

Facebook event information.


I work with the feelings that remains and found objects give me, to make a piece that expresses that creature’s life.
Many artists who work with animal remains are more humorous than I am about it. I see the remains as a medium for art, with some neutrality, but I don’t make jokes with them. The horrors of life, death, and the hard times most animals go through, are the stories behind each of my works.

 

Usually, animals live difficult lives, and their bones speak to me about this.

 

rugged dog skull, taxidermy art

I often get questions because there are other artists that do slaughter animals in the context of their work. I don’t do this.

 

Many of my pieces come from road strikes. I have been working on a series of photographs and an extended essay about roadside nature and roadkill, human safety, and how highways effect the animals that live near them.

 

As a consequence of this work I have seen that these wild animals are the survivors of repeated injuries (fractures and old healed injuries in their skeletons attest to this) and the way they interact with the road, the difficulty of their lives, fascinates me.

sold

I work with human bones too. It is easier to buy human bone than many animals. I get my human bone from places which sell vintage anatomical displays and specimens. Yes, these bones are legal. I didn’t kill anyone to get them. I don’t use anything illegal, and I avoid using items which violate CITES or the MBA.

These works are dark. I don’t get silly feelings from death.

her roses resonanteye

I’ve sold work and done commissions for vegans- for people who are animal and conservation activists. My work speaks of  people’s misunderstanding of the natural world. Nature is full of drama, death, struggle, and strangeness. I try to use the materials I have to portray that.

Reminders of mortality are not for everyone. And yet, we need to be confronted with these reminders, because there’s a beauty in impermanence, a longing sensation, and we crave the reality of time’s dark passage.

The winter is the best time to think about endings, about death. Rebirth will come, but first we have to pass through the solstice- the darkest hour is always just before dawn.

 

 

 

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somewhere there’s a feather

Warning to people using this as an informational resource: I am not a lawyer. I curse a lot. Follow the links in the text to find official sources and research, rather than relying on my say-so.
he flew into my house through an open window, I caught him and let him go. he's a flycatcher.

he flew into my house through an open window, I caught him and let him go. he’s a flycatcher. I didn’t keep any pieces of him, except the poops he left behind on my counter.

There’s this law, see. Every time I bring it up, people get salty about it. Hell, sometimes I get salty about it when people bring it up. But I’m bringing it up anyway.

The Migratory Bird Treaty Act makes it illegal for anyone to take, possess, import, export, transport, sell, purchase, barter, or offer for sale, purchase, or barter, any migratory bird, or the parts, nests, or eggs of such a bird except under the terms of a valid permit issued pursuant to Federal regulations.

The MBTA does not apply to: (1) Nonnative species introduced into the United States or its territories by means of intentional or unintentional human assistance…, or nonnative, human-introduced species that belong to families or groups not covered by the Canadian, Mexican, or Russian Conventions.

(If you have found a feather, there are resources at the very end of this post to help you figure out what bird it’s from, and if you can keep it or not. Click ‘read more’ then scroll down.)

song thrush

seriously, these guys kept coming in. that place had big windows, they really liked shitting all over my house and refusing to fly back out. this is a female, maybe the special friend of the other bird. she also left some potentially-illegal feces behind.

Definitely-legal feathers come from European Starlings, House Sparrows, Rock Pigeons, Eurasian Collared Doves, AND basically any bird you are legally allowed to hunt (meaning, YOU have a hunting license for it) or farm/have as a pet legally- these game and domestic birds include non-native parrots, wild turkey, pheasant, some geese, peacocks, some grouse, domestic chickens, domestic ducks, domestic geese, domestic quail, and domestic turkey.

(side note: all the feathers used in my work are from legal species and sources; I paint and stain legal feathers to resemble rare/illegal ones, and you can too, and if you do I will keep liking you and your art)

There’s a damn good reason for these laws. I know that you’re thinking, “but I’m not out harvesting cormorants, smashing baby sparrows, and yanking the tails of owls! I found it on the ground, how could it possibly harm anyone for me to just have it in my own house?”

fox skull mount

chicken feathers behind a fox skull. these look rad and they’re legal and easy to obtain.

It’s harmful because people actually do kill these birds to get their feathers, and they can and do say the same fucking thing when they get caught. In order to keep poachers from saying they “found” feathers that they actually killed to get, the law simply won’t allow anyone to have them at all. This includes you, and me, and includes ‘private collections’ and ‘I won’t sell it I just want it for my shrine’. I won’t even get started on people who are selling protected birds’ feathers (online or off) because it makes me too frothy and I want this article to make sense.It used to be that poachers could claim they had ‘found feathers’, and didn’t actually kill the birds. This law ensures that this doesn’t happen. There are exceptions and loopholes, of course, but you’ll need paperwork to fit into them.

I understand that it feels like the Fun Police have arrived when someone brings up the fact that you’re endangering birds by keeping those crow feathers in your hat. Hell, I know that before I got super involved in this kind of art I pretty much felt the same way. It wasn’t until I did a lot more reading and a lot more thinking that I really got it. I don’t mean to prevent you from making cool stuff. I truly understand, and I also dislike the arrival of the Fun Police in general. But.

BUT. But there’s this law, see. And if you’re breaking it, you’re not being an Ethical Shaman-type Person. So if you wish to represent yourself as a Magical Unicorn Dancer of Good Intentions and The Like, read on. (Evil Bastards of Doom, feel free to skip ahead to the “crow” or “canada goose” sections, or just go squash a european starling.)

 

somewhere there's a feather

Warning to people using this as an informational resource: I am not a lawyer. I curse a lot. Follow the links in the text to find official sources and research, rather than relying on my say-so.
he flew into my house through an open window, I caught him and let him go. he's a flycatcher.

he flew into my house through an open window, I caught him and let him go. he’s a flycatcher. I didn’t keep any pieces of him, except the poops he left behind on my counter.

There’s this law, see. Every time I bring it up, people get salty about it. Hell, sometimes I get salty about it when people bring it up. But I’m bringing it up anyway.

The Migratory Bird Treaty Act makes it illegal for anyone to take, possess, import, export, transport, sell, purchase, barter, or offer for sale, purchase, or barter, any migratory bird, or the parts, nests, or eggs of such a bird except under the terms of a valid permit issued pursuant to Federal regulations.

The MBTA does not apply to: (1) Nonnative species introduced into the United States or its territories by means of intentional or unintentional human assistance…, or nonnative, human-introduced species that belong to families or groups not covered by the Canadian, Mexican, or Russian Conventions.

(If you have found a feather, there are resources at the very end of this post to help you figure out what bird it’s from, and if you can keep it or not. Click ‘read more’ then scroll down.)

song thrush

seriously, these guys kept coming in. that place had big windows, they really liked shitting all over my house and refusing to fly back out. this is a female, maybe the special friend of the other bird. she also left some potentially-illegal feces behind.

Definitely-legal feathers come from European Starlings, House Sparrows, Rock Pigeons, Eurasian Collared Doves, AND basically any bird you are legally allowed to hunt (meaning, YOU have a hunting license for it) or farm/have as a pet legally- these game and domestic birds include non-native parrots, wild turkey, pheasant, some geese, peacocks, some grouse, domestic chickens, domestic ducks, domestic geese, domestic quail, and domestic turkey.

(side note: all the feathers used in my work are from legal species and sources; I paint and stain legal feathers to resemble rare/illegal ones, and you can too, and if you do I will keep liking you and your art)

There’s a damn good reason for these laws. I know that you’re thinking, “but I’m not out harvesting cormorants, smashing baby sparrows, and yanking the tails of owls! I found it on the ground, how could it possibly harm anyone for me to just have it in my own house?”

fox skull mount

chicken feathers behind a fox skull. these look rad and they’re legal and easy to obtain.

It’s harmful because people actually do kill these birds to get their feathers, and they can and do say the same fucking thing when they get caught. In order to keep poachers from saying they “found” feathers that they actually killed to get, the law simply won’t allow anyone to have them at all. This includes you, and me, and includes ‘private collections’ and ‘I won’t sell it I just want it for my shrine’. I won’t even get started on people who are selling protected birds’ feathers (online or off) because it makes me too frothy and I want this article to make sense.It used to be that poachers could claim they had ‘found feathers’, and didn’t actually kill the birds. This law ensures that this doesn’t happen. There are exceptions and loopholes, of course, but you’ll need paperwork to fit into them.

I understand that it feels like the Fun Police have arrived when someone brings up the fact that you’re endangering birds by keeping those crow feathers in your hat. Hell, I know that before I got super involved in this kind of art I pretty much felt the same way. It wasn’t until I did a lot more reading and a lot more thinking that I really got it. I don’t mean to prevent you from making cool stuff. I truly understand, and I also dislike the arrival of the Fun Police in general. But.

BUT. But there’s this law, see. And if you’re breaking it, you’re not being an Ethical Shaman-type Person. So if you wish to represent yourself as a Magical Unicorn Dancer of Good Intentions and The Like, read on. (Evil Bastards of Doom, feel free to skip ahead to the “crow” or “canada goose” sections, or just go squash a european starling.)

 

drilled sandstone, featherweights, and magic crystals

il_570xN.678143942_pm2fAnd I have started pulling out the stones I’ve collected and drilled, the feather batch, and the bones and such that I’ve been amassing over the last few years. So the next sets of these will be a bit more extravagant…

These are made from sawa wood coils as a base, with wooden beads, hemp threadwrapping, bamboo, seeds, nontoxic chalk, and sandstone pieces I found on the Alsea River. The stones look heavy, but in fact they’re very light.

These are lighter than some of the more simple, plainly-beaded pairs I have made.

 

You should be at least 00 gauge to wear them. These are wood coils, not made to use in unhealed piercings or ears that you are stretching. Weights are for healed, settled holes!

(more…)

a few older works. very older!

ukokprincessinformation_items_411

This first piece is based on tattoos found on a mummy, the Ukok ‘princess’ (probably a shaman). Her body is 2500 years old and was preserved in ice. Like the iceman of the Alps, these ancient human remains show intricate and amazing tattoo work, showing that our art has been around far longer than many might think.

Her body is about to be reinterred, which I think is a very good thing. We’ve learned a lot from her and need to return her to her resting place. You can read more about her here.
The woman who has these modern versions of the tattoos found on this ancient woman, is an anthropologist.

I think that all of the Ukok woman’s work is beautiful, and find the art very inspiring. I’ve seen actual full-scale images of these tattoos, and they are done impeccably. Even 2500 years ago, there were great tattoo artists in the world.
The work is astounding, compared to other tattoos we’ve seen from that era (which is not many). They’re not the typical bronze age/neolithic art we see, with its stick-figure base and straight lines, they’re ALIVE, in motion, vibrant. So inspiring.

The most recent MRI and other testing they did showed that she had advanced breast cancer, was using cannabis regularly (for the pain possibly) and had been thrown from a horse (which most likely is what killed her).

I really think that we’re not seeing all the things that were being done then. There’s almost…almost a thread that goes back, if you look at older tattoos (say, 1800s, or indigenous works) that makes me think our very earliest human ancestors were doing tattoos, and quite complex and intricate ones. Some motifs appear again and again, worldwide, and imply to me that there may be a previous, paleolithic art we’ll never get to see.

This woman’s tattoos hint at that even more strongly.

Feel free to share this post (or anything on my site, for that matter) or post any further information in the comments!

(more…)

spidery.

These are all sold. I have some prints (also here, here, and here) of these available but not the originals….. And yes, these came from a nightmare. (Originally Published on: Oct 23, 2011)

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(more…)

halloween and horror arts.

I make a lot of creepy things.

witchiowl

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il_170x135.324889630 shy owl EPSON MFP image shirts wpid-IMG_20131002_174925.jpg turtle springmorning

(more…)

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