Millennium

MILLENNIUM (12" x 20") is another assemblage in a styrofoam packing piece. It draws on several fairly conventional apocalyptic images: the last angel blasting the last note on the Last Trump is a Renaissance angel cut from a Christmas calendar with wings of maple seed "helicopters;" the scythe collaged onto the bottom is part of the face of a clock.

This piece was done as the Y2K heebie-jeebies were getting lots of attention, but since then, I've noticed that every couple of years, there is a new "The End of the World as We Know It is Near" scenario. The last election was high on some people's radar; 2012 is next, I understand. Somebody must be making money on it!

Open Studios today and tomorrow at the National Transit Art Studios, 206-210 Seneca Street, Oil City, PA, noon to 5:00 p.m. Come and visit -- I am in Studio E in the Annex!

Turn of the Century

TURN OF THE CENTURY is a 9" x 12" assemblage in a shadowbox. I experimented again with painting and decoupaging on the glass to give it a time-stained look. It's an attempt to create a certain kind of Victoriana -- the fabrics, the china doll's head (actually fimo and sculpted by me), reflecting the old meaning of "turn of the century" just as we were collectively approaching a new turn of a new century. Y2K seems so long ago now! Anyway, it's just a little meditation on the nature of the passage of time.

I've always leaned toward the cluttered, comfortable "grandma's house" look, especially in winter, and most of my furniture, lamps, knick-knacks, etc. would feel right at home in 1910. This piece fits into that thrift shop decor almost as well as the flower arrangements under glass that were so popular then.