Birdcages [ Ethereal Architectural Poems] and Curios Birdcages
Whimsical, fanciful, dreamy structures created out of recycled household items and wire.
It all started when it was thought I had skin cancer on my hand. I needed to occupy myself while awaiting surgery. And it had to be something different from painting.
Over the years I have painted birdcages on canvas so the idea of constructing birdcages was not a big leap. Actually the idea of building birdcage had been percolating in the recesses of my mind for some time, so I had an inkling on how I wanted to approach these creations and the materials I wanted to use. So off I went to the secondhand stores and picked up cheap household items, for example old silver plated serving bowls, plates, and candlesticks holders and from the hardware store wire. Having no set plan on how to put the birdcages together, except keep it simple!!, I made the criteria up as I went along. For instance I made the executive decision that doors were unnecessary. Candlestick holders were the designated pedestal, the bowl, which had to have holes around the edges became the base structure into which I drew wire up through the bowlʼs piercings. The wire became the ribs of the cage and could be only attached at the top by manipulating the wire. No glue! For whatever reason no glue became very important aspect of the pieces. So I weaved and contrived the wire to be structurally sound of its own accord to keep the structure erect, maintain the balance,and give the birdcage its form. Tricky, finicky, bloodletting process. Having had a stab at making these birdcages and pleased with the outcome I expanded my visual vocabulary to include beads. Amazing how beads can add so much weight and upset the status quo regarding balance. By adding the beads the work took on a new dimension, and literally sparkle when the light is right. Cool, and plus I got very good at threading those miserable small beady-eyed things onto the wire. A few times I wondered whose brilliant idea was this to add beads? I canʼt really blame my dogs. Surgery came and went. Then the wait for the biopsy result. And voila it came back negative for cancer. Moral of this story... there is none, but I still make birdcages.
Curios
Whimsical, fanciful, dreamy structures created out of recycled household items, broken ceramics and hot glue wax. At a break neck pace armed with a hot glue gun, a mess of damaged ceramics, and candlestick holders I stuck to a formula that ended up as these curiosities. The formula being to use the fluidity of the hot wax in an organic flowing way to hold together the ragged edged pieces of ceramics to the sturdy metal based pedestals [candlestick holders], or in one case a metal plate. The purpose was to as simply as possible create out of the chards and unwanted items free and easy objects of gentle beauty.