20 January 2012

The Circus

The Circus

Last February  my husband Jeff and I visited our daughter in Portland , Oregon.  I love that town and it has a familiarity to it since my mom had lived there also.  I found a chain belt with coins in a thrift shop and things started to collect in my house around this chain belt.  Then I found a picture of a snake charmer (Big thanks to Muffet on Flicker.)  I started making shades of pink polymer clay tiles and stamping them with India images.  I deviated from my conventional blingy-ness; I wanted a matte look and I  discovered Doc O'Brien's weathering powders From the library, I checked out kids books on India to get inspired by some images.  I used Apoxie Sculpt to create cow horns and painted them to look like Henna.

I learned that snake charming is illegal in India now, yet what a profession!   There are some wonderful, authentic snake charming images from the University of Washington but, too many hoops to jump through to get permission to use.  I try to be very careful about that public domain slippery slope.  I actually contacted the estate of Man Ray whom his images are entrusted too.  I asked if I could use some of his images in my art. They told me, "...Absolutely not,"  and signed the correspondence, "Remaining at your service..."

The piece measures 26 x 21 x 4 inches.  The substrate is Wedi-board (concrete-foam-concrete sandwich used to frame in showers.)   There are pink jasper beads, millefiore, smalti, old jewelry; oh-and a little toy elephant I painted blue and sculpted India-elephant looking garb on it (illuminated magnifying glass for that one.)  The little tent is created out of polymer clay.
  
A river runs through it.  I was trying to convey a sensory overload of exotic sights, sounds and smells moving through town, just for that one night, leaving stunned inhabitants in its' wake who later would recall, "Remember the night the circus came into town?"

Here are some detailed images.  Blessings Everyone!

p.s.  I'm kind of a big deal.  I have 14 followers on Google and 8 on Twitter, 3 real people and 5 perverts.



6 comments:

  1. It's beautiful! I would love to see it in person. It looks like there could be hours spent discovering! (Bette Westman posted it on Facebook).

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  2. Gorgeous!!!!!! You've inspired me to get back to making assemblages. I can't wait to get these last few tasks off my plate and start digging through my stuff!

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  3. Great job. They are all awesome! Jenny

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  4. Leida Rombout (netherlands)January 22, 2012 at 9:16 AM

    What a beautiful peace of artwork.
    Just looking at it makes me feel good.
    Thanks!

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  5. Beautiful colors. I like the Hinduy theme!

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