Friday, July 18, 2014

The Things They Carried . . .

"The Things They Carried"
 I love collecting old interesting wood pieces. Carved chair parts, vintage frames, drift wood, wood hangers, yard sticks, boxes, . . .The older the better.  It does not matter if the wood is painted or unpainted, carved or plain, I find wood to be delicate and exquisite and strong and worldly, with many stories to tell.  The older the piece of wood, the better the stories.

I just can's say no to a beautiful piece of wood.

I have had this idea that I wanted to construct an art piece using multiple and various pieces of wood from different origins, of all ages and with varied textures and patinas. I wanted to cut the pieces of wood and fit them together, like a puzzle and let their texture and their beauty speak for themselves.

This piece is my first attempt.

Some time ago while perusing blogs, I came across the quote "A lot like yesterday, a lot like never". The words resonated with me and I thought that at some point I might use it in one of my Scrabble pieces. After adding the quote to my 'list' of quotes, I printed out a copy and hung it on the inspiration board in my studio . . . so I could see it everyday.

In researching the quote, I discovered it is from a book titled "The Things They Carried" written by a Tim O'Brien, the book contains a number of short stories about a platoon of American soldiers in the Vietnam War.

Using a piece of pine as substrate, cut pieces of redwood, fence board, clothes hangers and various other wood types are pieced together to form a whole. Embellishments include found metal pieces and bits of bling along with a small convex mirror and the head of a colorful rooster, formally a napkin ring holder.
The piece is finished in a frame made from a vintage yard stick with with bright blue lettering.

12 comments:

  1. "The Things They Carried" is a wonderful book. The particular story within the book that the title comes from is quite compelling. Nice piece of work you did here. Well done!!

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    1. thank you Lory.
      The book is on my summer reading list!
      thanks for stopping by.

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  2. Replies
    1. I am working on my second piece of wood parts . . . : )

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  3. j'aime énormément..! le miroir de sorcière est bien intégré.. dommage de ne pas voir la photographe - artiste!

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    1. Merci Elfi
      J'ai pris beaucoup de photos avec le photographe dans le miroir! HA! HA!

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  4. The imagination you have ~ wow~ you create such beauty with such simple objects. Your addition of the wooden hangers and watch parts at the base are so original and add just the perfect touch!

    Gaby

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    1. Gaby thank you.
      that means a lot to me. As i said on the post, i have been wanting to create an art piece like this one for a while. I'm excited to say - there is another 'wood-puzzle' piece on my work table in the studio . . . more soon!

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  5. Hi Rebeca. What amazes me is how you do make a piece with embellishments that do come together as a whole. Just beautiful. I love how the mirror shows a reflection of your studio. Your work is excellent Rebeca, I love it.

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    1. Thank you my friend! I too, think the mirror is an important element to the piece.
      more to come!

      PS: the two images of the man and the woman are images of my ancestors . . . kinda kool, huh?

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  6. This is simply incredible. I'm a BIG fan of wood, too. Of course, like GlorV1, I also noticed your studio, and thought about how similar your camera is to my old one. Of course, I love the wood and the way you used it in this multidimensional, multi-media piece. It's fantastic.

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  7. What an incredible imagination you have. I really like the way you incorporated those old hangers on the bottom, then made a frame with the old yardstick. Love the rooster head!!

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