Wunderkammer Squirrel
This is the first piece in a new series called Wunderkammer, the original word for the curiosity cabinet. I have so many images and objects that I have collected over time that constructing my own 2d cabinet seems an obvious direction to take. Each piece will be boxed framed with no mount and of various sizes.
This work is based on a Persian carpet design and is therefore wibbly wobbly and not perfect. Digital art can be very precise and I have found myself in the past becoming very uniform. In this I am trying to escape that and give a more handmade appearance as it is very much a handmade object regardless of its computer origins. It has taken over a month and a half to complete and is my most time consuming piece of work to date!
I chose a rather beautiful Albino squirrel to start. It belongs to Maidstone Museum`s collection. I have noticed that most museums that have taxidermy specimens have the ubiquitous albino squirrel. I feel a bit sorry for them, it seems you life was pretty short lived if you had the misfortune to be born an albino squirrel!
You may also notice it is not a circle although obviously there is a circle within the composition. I am leaving the circle behind for now, I need something new to explore and filling the space to the edges is interesting to me as it leaves the viewer no respite or room to breath, the eye darts from object to object then back on itself.
That squirrel really grabs ones attention. I really like the butterflies flitting around. I see something else I can’t quite make out, beetles? I like the change. It’s always good to try new things, keep it fresh. It definitely feels handmade. Some bits, like the green, almost seem to be embroidered. If I didn’t know different, I probably would have assumed they were. Time well spent! 🙂
Thank you 🙂 It is made of lots of different coloured beetles, layered over each other. Time consuming to say the least!
Yes, as Pat says it looks almost as if t was embroidered, lovely colours, are the brightly colour bits beetles, very nice, like it in a square 🙂
It is a bit nerve wracking leaving the circle haha 🙂 Was looking through your blog today, it looks really good!!! x
Oh yes, its always like that when leaving the circle, well done 🙂 glad you think so, it means a lot 🙂 x