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Category: Art

Is it Toxic?

I often use dried plant parts in my work. Typically the plants must have some interesting tactile quality, be toxic, and have a cultural myth or superstition. I was looking through a stash of dried plant parts and found some Haworthia limifolia leaves. They have great texture with sharp and pointy tips.

Haworthia

I googled Haworthia limifolia looking for information. I was a bit disappointed that the plant isn’t toxic. Apparently it is often used in place of Aloe for skin ailments. I did find a line that popped up in several articles, “Haworthia limifolia is often used by traditional healers as a spiritual remedy to ward off evil.” Curious. What kind of evil?

I have a contact at the UC Botanical Garden so I sent him an email inquiry about the plant. The plant is one that he gave to me several years back. He sent me a pdf of an article that I hadn’t read, Lightning Birds and Thunder Trees authored by Adrian Koopman. The article states that Haworthia is used as a charm to protect against lightning.

We don’t see much in the way of lightning where I live. Before reading about the plant’s reference to lightning, I had already bound the bits to a piece of hardware cloth to become part of a lid. My work must have the appearance of a life lived, so I age the work using one or more techniques–wax, heat, fire, salt, molten sugar, chemicals… and sometimes I bury the work.

Haworthia for Lid

The Haworthia bits are bound to the hardware cloth with cotton and bamboo fiber which works great with all of the techniques.

A few lightning information links–

S.A. Weather and Disaster Information Service, South Africa

Global Hydrology and Climate Center

StruckbyLightning.org

Mortality Statistics–Victim of lightning by country

NOAA National Severe Storms Laboratory

Mix of Stuff 16 February 2012

Today I was asked to make a red target icon that doesn’t look like the target used by Target. I googled archery targets to get a notion of what might be visually expected. I didn’t remember that the center of a target could be yellow.

Whenever I perform searches for work projects, I often receive hits that are of personal interest. Today I found arrows at the Museum of Anthropology, the University of Missouri. I made several series based on weapons, so I’m always delighted to see lovely artifacts that also have a dark edge to them. I especially like sharp pointy objects.

Arrows1Arrows2

According to the site the artifacts are Javanese target arrows. The description states that the shafts are made of bamboo, a material that I have used quite often in my work. I found that it was a bit difficult obtaining the surface that I wanted until I hit on using heat. Beware though, bamboo can catch fire from the inside. Before you know it, your piece can be aflame.

I chose to use bamboo because it is a prolific grower, its cultural myths, and its use in a variety of rituals.

After I finished the icon job, I went out to water a newly planted hellebore. I noticed that the bottlebrush in the courtyard apparently doesn’t like its location. It is thrusting out from the house and in doing so appears to be using a bunny ornament as a support.

Weight

When I went back to proofing the database of thousands of words, I found a couple of interest–

antemeridian
of, relating to, or taking place in the morning

antefix
carved ornament at the eaves of a tile roof concealing the joints between tiles

More Netflix and Code Template

When I am working, I listen to films and series that contain loads of dialog. This evolved from listening to DVD commentaries of films that I had already viewed. Commentaries are a great way to have access to the filmmaking process, how decisions were made, and their results.

Recently I listened to the first season of Land Girls which was based on the Women’s Land Army in Britain during World War II. When I view films about historic events, I always wonder about their accuracy. After viewing them, I perform a google search to learn a bit more about the time and events.

When I searched for “Land Girls” I found that during the Second World War, women joined the Women’s Land Army. They replaced farm workers who were serving in the war, which is akin to those who replaced factory workers. The factory workers I knew about, but hadn’t thought about farm workers. Odd since I grew up in a farming community in the Mid West.

About the Code Technique Used–
In the third episode an over zealous, perhaps mad sergeant, used a code template to expose a presumed collaborator. The code template was a card with openings laid over a letter exposing hidden information. The individual attempting to find a coded message in some text, could look for specific types of words and numbers, and presume the combination to be a message.

I gave this a go using a paragraph from Richard Preston’s The Demon in the Freezer , a book that happened to still be on my desk from a previous post.

An image of the original text is followed by a quick Photoshop code template and an image of the code template over the original text.

Text

Code Template

Code Template Over Text

The arbitrary selection of words has nothing to do with anything. Interpretation mistakes can be made. This is often the case with works of art. Folks come to the work with their ideas and experiences. Their interpretation can be completely wrong, forcing something onto the work that isn’t there.

Proofing: Database of Words for SLPs

I am in the process of proofing a database of words for a couple of projects for speech language pathologists. Today I ran across a couple of words that I wasn’t sure were in fact words.

The letter combinations seemed like perfectly acceptable spellings, but something seemed amiss. Turns out they are in fact words and a bit connected as well.

The words I questioned as being such are, stoup and roods. Stoup is a basin that contains holy water and a rood is a crucifix or a painting of such. Coincidence, serendipitous that both words are religious objects used in rituals?

Free to Choose

Free to Choose is part of my Cleanse Your Palate series. Each glass is bound with wool, has a word in code, and is filled with clove soap. The holey rock rosaries are braided and knotted with “Forgive Yourself” in code.

How an Idea Occurs–Banned Books

Today when I was reading blog posts I saw this image and was off on a creative journey. The image was posted on Sri Threads, a gallery specializing in Japanese folk textiles.

SriThreads

I have been thinking about weaving or embroidering a family tree of important dates using Morse Code. I have woven some pieces for family gifts, but I want to show the connections between the family members. I originally thought that a large wallpiece using coconut fiber, white cotton rope, sisal, and 1″ fence would be the solution. I hadn’t thought about the possibility of the presentation in the form of a book. I love the intimacy that the book format offers. While the form is quite different, it probably would be better received by my siblings.

Then very quickly I started thinking about words and banned books and my series, Cleanse Your Palate. Cleanse started with my attempt to remove a particular word from my vocabulary. A versatile word that has multiple functions.

Cleanse

In No Regrets, the word is embroidered and affixed to the shot glass with a ring that is also in code. The shot glass is filled with clove soap. Yep, wash your mouth out with soap. Clove because of its history in dentistry and I just happen to love its fragrance.

A couple of things of interest–what happens when a code is used to represent a word with negative connotations; can the word appear beautiful when knotted or woven?

From there I hit on using what some folks believe are objectionable words, phrases, ideas weave them up in code and bind them in a book presentation. The series of course would be titled Banned Books.

When is a Piece Done?

I thought that I completed “Preservation and Collection” at the end of 2010. After the work was returned from a show at Western Nevada College, I hung it in my office, above and slightly to the left of my monitor. I specifically hung the piece so that it would loom in the periphery. That it could seep into view when my mind was on another task.

Preservation and Collection

A few days back I realized that the piece made me terribly uncomfortable. It was hung a tad higher than when it was exhibited and didn’t have great lighting, but I couldn’t see what was inside the cups.

Preservation and Collection

I spent loads of time making the cups and the bags filled with poison plant bits. But there was too much distance from the cups to experience the work the way it was intended.

I liked the idea of the 3×3 format–its reference to a nine patch quilt, but the result wasn’t right. I removed the cups and shelf from the wall. I will make new homes for the cups, but I haven’t yet worked out the details. Pretty sure that the cups will be happier hung together, in several separate and open shelves rather than in their original presentation.

Hanging pieces in close proximity was a great lesson I learned from Sharon Tetly. Sharon teaches at Western Nevada College and offered me the exhibition in the College Gallery. My work is rather small and intimate and the space is long and narrow. I was concerned that the work would be lost. Sharon grouped pieces–which I felt emphasized the intimate nature of them wihtout the loss of their autonomy.

Preservation and Collection

Sharon’s presentation of my work offered me a new viewing experience.

The photos were taken by Sharon Tetly.