Animalia

 If I enter the studio without a clear figure in mind, what emerges can take a range of forms.

The horse figure on the heading of this blog came from an image I had carried in my mind for a very long time; that of the paleolithic horses found depicted on the walls of Lascaux cave in France.

In this case the piece began with the charred driftwood, suggestive of a horse's torso.  The other parts: a chunk of rusted iron, a leather strap, a bone, a strand of braided electric wire were used to suggest the anatomy of the horse.  The copper mane and the push broom base came last.

This became the first in series of animals, that interestingly represent the most important species that humans have domesticated.

'Horse' and 'Dog', shown here, are perhaps the animals that humans have bonded to most strongly.




'Dog'  (6" long, 3" high) is composed of a glass teacup shard, a chunk of lobster trap wire, rusted steel plate, frayed
rope, lead flashing, and some glove material.  The base is a piece of pine bark (woof!).

This piece also developed from my interest in paleolithic art.

There is something 'domesticated' about this creature:
perhaps the white bone shard on its back.

Made from a very decayed chunk of iron (a bearing case I believe), a porcelain electric insulator, coiled electric conduit, bone, lead, and (below the rear end) a drop of iron.