17 April 2006

Day off

Grey, raining. Slept really late, for me. 8:30! I feel like the day is slipping through my fingers like sand.

Last night and today I have been working on a matchbox reliquary.

I think I may have passed into a new phase of playing/working with tangible media. I seem able to wait out each part of the process. New for me. I more typically rush it and often have wrecked stuff doing so.

The dimensionality of the reliquary is not well conveyed by scanning. I will take photos later. May post them.

I took a drive in the fall of 2005 and stopped by the Fisheries & Wildlife Office in Jonesboro. They gave me a hefty pile of paper goods. I especially liked the 3" x 5.5" cards they gave me of Maine Fish. I knew I wanted to do something with them.

The collage I posted yesterday and this shrine were made with those cards.






4 comments:

Anonymous said...

very nice, Crow! A box! 3 dimensions! Insides and outsides, backs and fronts!

A reliquary? For fish? It reminds me--I just put an old Sucrets tin in my special cabinet. We buried our first fish, Bozo, in a Sucrets tin. I tried to dig him up some time later, but the whole box was gone.

I love that you feel you have passed into a new phase. That is such good news. You are amassing your own history of artistic experience. That is a totally reliable thing. You can trust it.

Anonymous said...

In addition to the great depths of those greens, what really catches my eye about this piece is the fish associated with the text, "defined by stars." There's also such an unusual connection to the adage, "as above, so below", illustrated by placing the fish among the stars...and starfish.

Whether you intended all those connections to be there or if they're serendipitious, this is a very thought-provoking work of art.

Anonymous said...

yes, fish and stars. Defined by stars. I loved that, too. It's so evocative.

CrimsonCrow said...

gb herron and silver,

Thank you greatly for your interest and feedback. I find it thrilling in a way I would not have suspected, to find that some people are seeing my art. I guess I always thought doing it for its sake was enough, but I have to admit, I like knowing someone is looking. Not "judging" but looking and responding. Thank you both!

The reliquary has meaning for me on several levels. Formost that the fish symbol has been used for millennia as a symbol associated with the Great Mother Goddess. As the outline of her vulva. The symbol was often drawn by overlapping two thin crescent moons. One shortly before the new moon; the other shortly after. Of course the Moon has long been associated with the Goddess. And so, "the stars."

Also, I did, indeed intend the connections you mention silver. BTW I found those starfish at least 20 years ago and have carried them around, tenderly ever since. They said they had to be in the piece.

Again, thanks. Come back now, y'hear!