Monday, November 22, 2010

A Burial Shroud for some Roots

So I've been working on a lot of things (as usual).

Hair art is going well, I even sold one on Halloween. They're going much more smoothly too, I've got a much better handle on how to make them.

I also am working on a commission for a lovely couple in Baltimore. They drove up a few weeks ago and I took the reference photos. Its going very well, and I hope to finish it up when I return from Thanksgiving in Columbus Ohio!

The studio is winterized and let's hope it's warm enough! Sheets from circle thrift, I will be buying you soon enough!

For some more serious talk, though. Last Tuesday I walked to the subway for work as I usually do. There is a block a few blocks from my house in which the side I walk along was a big overgrown field. But last Tuesday they broke ground for some new houses they're putting in (yay gentrification) and on Saturday they were already pretty far along putting in cinderblocks. I walked along the sidewalk as far as I could go, and then there in front of me, was the root structure of one of the trees I most enjoyed in that yard. There were kittens who lived there, and morning glory all over the yard and the tree and the fence. I saw the roots and I immediately saw it in my mind's eye wrapped ever so delicately in white yarn, somewhat like a burial shroud, somewhat like the crane wife spinning it.

But then I walked away thinking that I must have seen that image somewhere else. I emailed Erin to ask if I was crazy. She sent me a link to Nina Katchadourian as a response. My favorite is her Uninvited Collaborations with Nature section. And definitely the mended spider webs project the most.

But long story short, I got Eli and Celia to help me move the roots (which either had been hacked apart before or after I saw it initially) into my studio.

I am currently seeking white yarn. Any white yarn, but preferably natural and thin. Even student spun. Even...anything.

I usually don't do nature work, but this one sort of attacked me first.