This afternoon I’ve been working on a new piece and have been working through several problems. I’ve been coming and going from my work table all afternoon and have enjoyed the changing light patterns in the next room. The patterns are created by the sun shining though a stained glass window.
Here’s my “Two Brothers” piece in motion. It’s wind powered, so I set up a fan to make it spin. It makes a pleasant little tinkling and clinking sound as it spins. Too bad I couldn’t get that on the video.
I just about have this piece complete. It’s appeared in many previous posts as a work in progress. I took it outside today to see if there was enough breeze to turn the whirligig, but there wasn’t. Too bad.
It’s inspired by the story of the prodigal in Luke 15:11-32. There are two golden babies on it for the two brothers in the story. One spins endlessly from beneath the whirligig and the other is suspended from the mixer beater and gets yanked around as the whirligig spins. There’s a lot of excess and a lot of joy in finding the lost (as in: finding beauty in trash).
If you’re wondering what it’s made out of, the answer is a lot of stuff I found. The only thing I actually purchased for the piece was glitter. Other materials are: rusty bed springs, a coat hanger, pop/beer cans, twist ties, shower curtain rings, Mardi Gras babies, old beads, old jewelry, gold leaf (yes, it came to me second hand), cardboard, sewing machine bobbins, a beater I found in the street, half an ornament I found in the street, a ballerina cake decoration (OK, so I bought that years ago at a junk store with the intention of using it for art), an old needle case, odds and ends off some Christmas crackers, fabric leftover from something else, a star from a stuffed animal, a Barbie leg, and wire.
Here’s a post in honor of the Super Bowl…and my efforts to resolve the lower portion of this sculpture. I’ve got a couple deadlines coming up, so I’m committed to getting a good amount of art done today.
Working on a professional development grant this morning means plenty of thumbing through things on the internet to take a break from writing. My reward for finishing that last paragraph? Post something!
Here we have the art material that is now filtering itself all through my house. It’s hard to encrust wire with glitter and not make a mess.
This weekend I’m working on photos of my recent work including this piece called “Little Needs” that I made from an old fur coat, a stuffed animal, old jewelry, gold leaf, and beads. Other than the beads and thread, I didn’t buy any of it–it was all random stuff I found here and there.
Amy Rich 