Halloween flash time coming up!
I LOVE HALLOWEEN as you all know. So I drew some things and set aside a day to do them, October 28th-
I LOVE HALLOWEEN as you all know. So I drew some things and set aside a day to do them, October 28th-
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!
Nature isn’t cruel or kind; it’s just hungry.
Statement for the collection, “Gathering”, which will be on display for First Friday in Kendall Yards in Spokane in December.
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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.
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.
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.
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.
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)
Ilomba is a sea snake with destructive powers in the mythology of the Lozi people of Zambia. It is provided by a witch doctor. Usually it is fed with eggs and porridge in the morning. It takes on the identity of the person that owns it. If it is killed, the owner feels the pain, and then dies. If the owner dies, it dies. The only way it can be destroyed is through the witch doctor.
~wikipedia
It appears as a regular seasnake to normal people but on the desired target it has the head of it’s creator. …The eyes of the Ilomba paralyses the victim with fear and bites it sucking the blood and devouring its soul that makes the Ilomba double in size. The sorcerer or witchdoctor collects these souls to use as zombies.
http://fuckyeahafricanmythology.tumblr.com
The ilomba comes from Zambia, but is known here and there throughout Africa. It looks like a normal snake to most people. Only its victim sees its true nature. It’s made by a sorceror, whose face it will have when it attacks. It not only sucks the blood from its victim, but also their soul.
In this image a woman walks through a group of snakes, one of which is the ilomba. The fact that snakes are common in Zambia makes this tale all the more frightening- at any time you could be right next to one of these creatures and not even know it. Like many other monsters in mythology, it hides in plain sight. The ilomba may be created by a sorceror, but it is not ruled by one. The person who makes an ilomba must feed it, by directing it to other people to devour them. Without blood or souls, the ilomba turns on its creator, killing them both. And if an Ilomba is killed, its creator also dies.
(All this and more about the ilomba, in my book!)
I make a lot of creepy things.
I worked on this today, with help from Hawkins.
It’s a commission for a friend; I was working on it before but they asked me to build a mount for them, and finishing this ended up fitting their concept perfectly. (I do have some things like this for sale, go here to buy those, or see them.)
All that’s left to do is seal it.
Pig skull, deer and coyote jaws, deer, dog, and badger bones- medical-grade gauze circa 1943, and oil paint.
I used bone glue, hot glue, twine, and adhesive plaster to construct it, and to make the joints solid.
It’s mounted on a square piece of maple plywood. It has taken me a few days of solid effort, and a few weeks of concept/articulation research, to make this one. Hawkins helped assort and assemble the structure – having his mind on the project was extremely helpful.
More images after the jump.
Published on: Dec 7, 2011
Published on: Mar 16, 2012
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