Wednesday, November 18, 2009

. . . unearthed a relic




Scrounging around in the basement, looking for stuff that I had stashed away (I just knew I would need it one day), I came across this funny piece that I created a long, long time ago. . .


I can't seem to call it anything but "Homage to a Survivor." Obviously it's a vintage wooden box, the back covered in corrugated cardboard. Attached to the back is a wooden block, heavily textured, with painted kebob sticks included. I can't remember where I got that little half-finial but I attached it to the block. At the bottom there's a rusty metal washer nailed into the back with a numbered storm window nail. The survivor is, of course, the vintage turquoise pin of a cockroach. Why anyone would have ever wanted a cockroach pin is beyond me. I know I bought it at an estate sale years ago. Maybe it's not a cockroach. . . maybe it's a big ladybug or some other kind of beetle. I used it as a cockroach. At the present time, it is not attached to anything, and it keeps falling off. So I just reposition it, sometimes going into the finial, sometimes creeping out of it.


I have a lot of stuff like this hanging around the studio. At one time I thought I might try my hand at assemblage (and I still might someday) so I have lots of boxes and stuff to put in the boxes. I used to paint on wood a lot, when I started doing this art stuff. Now I have a lot of really bad art on wood. I'm cutting it up into smaller pieces and using the backside of it to make new art for etsy. I'll probably just end up with piles of smaller art on wood. There's more than one way to clean out a basement/studio. Instead of pitching a lot of stuff, I'll just use it up. It doesn't look like I'll be moving anytime soon, so I'll just wait for the foreclosure notice, and then the Sheriff can haul all the junk in the basement to the front lawn. That will certainly be a payback for the modification committee of the homeowners association rejecting the dog fence idea for potential new owners. (Okay, that last part is sarcastic and mean-spirited, and I'm joking about foreclosure. . . kind of.)

5 comments:

mamadoc said...

I find your concept of justice quite satisfying. And while you're at it, go rent a dirty silver Lexus to accompany the artwork on the front lawn. Or maybe a dog--a big one--without a fence.
In my line of work, it's difficult to imagine how a dog bite of any size could be more troubling than brain damage from a golf ball to the skull, incurred while chatting over green apple martinis on the patio.

Jazz said...

Personally, I like your idea of payback.

And I really like the assemblage myself.

Sherry Pierce Thurner said...

I wish I could see this little assemblage up close; photos rarely do them justice. I know what you mean about the impulse to save things that might be put into some sort of Cornell type creation. I have blocks, doll parts, wooden bits that never seem to come together except in my mind.

Mary Buek said...

Doc: Girl, you make me laugh. And that green apple martini sounds damn good. And I have been bonked with a golf ball.

Jazz: I know it's a weird piece but I find it funny. God help me if my payback should actually come into play.

Sherry: I have so much stuff saved and I don't think I'll live long enough to use it. Must dispose of it somehow. Don't want to waste it.

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