Saturday, September 14, 2013

The Finished Pieces: Survivor

 

Continuing on with sharing the finished pieces from my “Odd Birds” show in May.  Survivor was the largest piece in the show. She is a moth/ bird/ goddess creature.  She is surreal and otherworldly. Survivor  was an intense piece to make both from the physical construction aspects to the artistic and emotional choices. 

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Moths have been the creature I have been fascinated with this year.  They have subtle beauty compared to the showy colors of the Butterfly. They are often overlooked and some people find them “creepy”.   They are creatures of the night that are hypnotically drawn to the light.

 

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My moth “Survivor” is constructed with a cloth body that has been  embellished with patchwork textiles and soft sculpting. She wears a piece of vintage sari as her elegant collar.   Her face is constructed on top of a art deco mask found at Goodwill.  Her round big eyes are tinker toys.  Her forehead is a large textured shell found while beach combing.  The shapes that make her antennae are some of my favorites although I don’t know exactly what they are, probably dried kelp or weathered pieces of wood.

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A theme evident in much of my work is the beauty that can be found in things broken, weather, and repaired.  In “Survivor” I wanted to physically represent the hardships and strain that make us who we are. The scars and bumps we acquire as we go through life need not distract from our beauty but be celebrated as our beauty.

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I wanted her wings to feel like a rich tapestry of texture and time. There are bundles of rusted fabric, small animal bones, feathers that once flew, and soft sculpted shapes.   The soft sculpted shape have been affectionately referred to as  polyps which they resemble in shape, but that word is very limiting and has a negative association. The shapes are soft, round and sensual. But they feel like something from another world.  Or enlarged versions of microscopic cells or organisms.  How do you see them?   Sometime the symbols in my work are very obvious to me and then other times I just know they belong in the art but I don’t comprehend there full message.

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The curled translucent shapes that create the structure of the wings are heavy steel wire covered with sausage casings and then dried. Gut is a perfect medium to capture the strong translucent nature of insect wings.  The wings also bare the evidence of time and many flights with splits and holes to add to their texture.

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Survivor is still available for info on purchasing email me at

clarissacallesen@gmail.com

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Now a behind the scenes look at the making of….

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