The Middle Child

 "Middle Child"

The experts say that middle children often feel left out and invisible, a contrast from their older and younger siblings. While older children get the benefits of all of the “firsts” a child accomplishes, younger children benefit from the emotional impact of being the baby of the family, often being spoiled and coddled. Middle children, however, often feel as though they have nothing special that is just “theirs.”

Over the years I find that I can often correctly identify a person's 'birth-order', by certain behaviors or traits they exhibit as adults. 

Myself, I am the youngest of 7 children, and I can say that even today, I clearly identify with the younger, coddled baby of the family, and thankfully a more independent, confident adult..

Which one are you?  YOUNGER?                    MIDDLE?                                        OLDER?

  

Vintage sewing machine drawer covered  on the inside with hand made papers and tissues. Three porceline doll heads representing the older more confident child, the younger, more independent child and the  middle child who often feels left out or treated unfairly.

Birds on Wheels

"Birds on Wheels"
A sweet wall hung piece depicting two birds on wheels. Foundation is a wooden plaque that has been covered in various papers.  The wooden birds have been painted with bright acrylic paints and perched slightly above wheels that spin.  Scrabble tiles spell out "Birds on Wheels".

"The Things We Left Behind"

"The Things We Left Behind"
Mixed media assemblage, a collection of things, flotsum and jetsum of a life lived.

Wikipedia describes "jetsam" as things that have been voluntarily cast into the sea by the crew of a ship, usually in order to lighten it in an emergency; while "flotsam" are goods that are floating on the water without having been thrown in deliberately, often after a shipwreck.

Either way, as we make our way through life, there are many things we touch and hold dear. A doll, a marble, a ball . . . Eventually, some are cast away, having served their purpose, are rendered useless, while others are somehow lost and forever missed.

This piece was created a few years ago, and although I liked the piece I was never completely happy with it.  Because of this, I never entered it a juried show or exhibited it at the Sebastopol Gallery, where I show my work.
Instead I kept it in the closet, hidden, untouched, and unseen.  For some reason, I felt this piece was an 'experiment', something that went in a completely different direction from where I typically go.  It was a stretch, a concept, a test, a trial run . . . 

Recently, I was invited to submit work for a juried show titled "Evolution / Revolution".

I felt I did not have any pieces that fit the theme - then I remembered this, almost forgotten piece. So I dug it up, and dusted it off and tentatively entered it in the show. . . .

And wouldn't you know?  It was one of the pieces selected for the show! I was pleasantly surprised.

Just goes to show ya! You just never know what the jurors are looking for . . . .

9/2/12 

Island Time

"Island Time"
I've had this small wooden ship in my stash for about a couple of years. When it came into my studio, it did not have any sails and some of the small wooden pegs around the ship were broken.  But it was pretty, and it was well made, and I liked it's small size, and I thought it would be something someday.
When I moved into my new studio in February, there was a lot of construction going on all around me. The great part about all of this was that the dumpster was always full of wonderful things that were thrown away and deemed useless by the construction crew.

Everyday was like (still is) Christmas. I go to the dumpster and find wonderful pieces century old wood planks, or vintage EXIT signs, one day i found an old couch with beautiful carved wood panels and lovely carved feet. All waiting for me to take.
Well that is the long way to tell you about the wonderful saw blades I used to make this piece.  I found several of these in that dumpster. Apparently they become dulled and must be replaced periodically.  I took these 3 and cleaned off the grease, and then prayed them with a thick coat of varnish.
And look what they became:  Masts for my ship.

Inspiration for this piece came from an art exhibit I saw at the Sonoma County Museum a couple of years ago. The show was all about art made from vintage tools. Really an amazing show. One of the artists whose work was featured in this exhibit was a fellow named Richard Bronk. Richard is an artist from Wisconsin whose medium is fine woods, and primarily makes furniture and some sculptures, like the one pictured below.

 

 This piece is titled "Ship of Tools". 

I so loved this piece I knew that some day I wanted to make my own interpretation.

Found objects, a wooden box lid, a toy/model ship, salvaged reciprocal saw blades, string and fishing line. The background is blue tissue overlaid with an image from a magazine with the words "island time" handwritten in a circular pattern, hence the name.