size: 17.2 x 29 cm ( about 6 3/4 x 11 1/2″ )
medium: cut paper on wood
click here or the image to crow louder
If there ever was an argument for spontaneous generation, it is the carrion-craving crow. The park near my home is infested with the big-beaked birds and they are eternally carrying out raids on the neighborhood garbage bags. But for all their ever-present…um, presence, I have yet to see a baby crow. As a boy I collected discarded robin’s eggs, without ever finding the slightest evidence that crows hatch. Instead, they seem to come into the world fully formed and filthy.
My theory is that dark and ominous thoughts float out of our heads and congeal in the upper atmosphere. There they take on feathery form before plummeting back down to earth to caw annoyingly and take part time jobs as evil omens.
I’ve been combining cut paper and wood for awhile now, and I really dig the way the natural textures and colors work together. Lately I’ve been thinking about using different shapes and kinds of wood. This is one of the first experiments in that vein. Something about the rounded shape of the wood felt feminine to me so I’ve been exploring ways to get a softer effect from the hard-edged paper, mostly by way of color combinations.
Carrion Comfort is part of The Way of Flow running from December 4, 2009 – January 2, 2010 at C.A.V.E. Gallery, Venice, CA.
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love it
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I actuall shivered. I love the paper you used for her hair!
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Wow – how wonderfully intricate
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so elegant, i love the colours.
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As always Patrick, I love your newest work/posts. I thinks its fantastic how the shape of her head follows the shape of the cut wood.
This piece puts two things in my mind. The beauty of the wood showing through reminds of the American Japanese artist Audrey Kawasaki: http://www.audrey-kawasaki.com/info.php?p=bio
Secondly, I am using similar ~ yet not quite as fantastic,wood plaques ~ for my art projects for this holiday season. It’s fun to find out when other artists that I admire are using some object I am also using at the time. I love the collectiveness of it ~ even though one didn’t know the other was doing the same thing.
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Dear Patrick,
The predominant crow in Tokyo is likely different from those you saw growing up…it is Corvus macrorhynchos japonensis, or the jungle crow (Hashibuto-garasu). This accounts for the exceptionally large beaks you may be noticing.
I think the piece is lovely.
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You’re absolutely right, the crows here are completely different than the ones around when I was growing up in New Jersey. The huge beak makes them seem much more threatening, less “birdlike”, and almost supernatural. Not to mention their very different attitude. But that’s probably down to the fact that city crows are alot more dependent on our refuse than their country cousins.
And thanks!
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It’s been a while, but it sure is a treat to return to your page after so long and see how your work has developed. I love the combination of wood and paper, and the blue hues in this POP so well…it’s captivating. Yummy eye candy:) Incredible depth. Gorgeous angular and whimsical lines. Great routed edges on the wood;) It’s a fantastic idea and new direction, and I hope you enjoy what’s to come. I know I look forward to seeing it!
Beth
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