Continuing on the theme of small creatures created from scraps and detritus, here’s a slightly larger creature. It’s currently on display at One Life Church in Evansville as part of an exhibit of artwork inspired by Places.
This piece is 2″ wide and deep but about 6″ tall. Like the previous piece, it has a little propeller that spins. I’ve had fun exhibiting these creatures within glass display cases that add to the appearance that they are collected specimens.
This is the second of three objects that make up the piece I got accepted into the Working Together show. I’d done the previous one first and working with the tomatillo husks got me thinking about turning husks into precious objects.
That made me think of cicada shells that you find on tree trunks, which made me wish I’d collected some. No worries, right? The cicadas were emerging and I’d find one with no problem. Except they’re one of those things that you always run across–until you want one.
Finally one turned up on one of my apple trees so I could experiment with a different kind of husk. Other materials in this piece are a vintage powder puff, beads, cast off silk thread, old jewelry bits, and a gold-leafed button.
Here’s a piece that will be part of my upcoming art show. I thought I’d call it Five Things I Want to Remember. It’s made with fabric trim that was given to me in a giant container of cast off odds and ends, wooden spools of thread that came in other big bins of cast offs, beads, and gold leaf.
A couple years ago, I got a whole bunch of gold leaf as part of yet another big box of cast off art supplies. I’ve enjoyed incorporating the gold into my found object art since then. I like the visual metaphor of gold leafed trash. I like thinking of the layer of gold like the layers of meaning that we all give everyday objects. They’re unremarkable objects, yet we handle them and they become precious to us. This can be good and bad.
The gold leaf can also suggest the practice of searching for joy and beauty in the everyday things around us. The gold adds significance and calls attention to details such as the way that thread wraps itself around the spool or the subtle undulations of a roll of trim as it unrolls itself.
Amy Rich 