sometimes, i will want to post my own art on the #missingArt site. part the the mission is to promote myself as an artist, so i think that’s pretty ok. 😉
i’m coating a pig skull in resin, and it’s beautiful. here is the story up to the present:
Seabranch Preserve State Park is off Old Dixie in Stuart, almost in Hobe Sound. in the middle of Seabranch, only a short distance from any trail, is the resting place of at least a dozen pigs. their bleached bones are scattered throughout a region of sparse scrub and fallen trees.
i discovered this place while geocaching with DJ (@donaldvoelker) and niece Bella. Seabranch has quite a few caches, one of them named Hog Heaven. we didn’t find that one. we had another cache in our sites and were bushwhacking en route. (we were seeking the Seabranch ORGT cache by Florida State Park Assoc.)
of course, i took a skull home with me. so did Bella. we carried our pig skulls down paths and through scrub and bramble and even swamp.
at home, i cleaned them first with a brush and then let them sit in a bleach solution. i rinsed them and let them dry in the sun on a bright, cool day. i wasn’t sure how i would feature mine; i knew the right project would come.
resin is a good way to reinforce delicate bone. the teeth are now permanently adhered. aesthetically, it’s a pleasing. i added some pearl dust, not enough to obscure natural textures and fissures. in the caverns, a darker coloring: blues and grays. a few more sessions remain to complete the process.
when i use bones in my art, i feel a constant and acute awareness that i am handling a piece of a once living creature. i handle the bones with awe and respect. sometimes, i have to cut or sand a piece of bone, and this is difficult. i reflexively pray to the animal, projecting my respect and my desire to honor rather than desecrate their bones.
pigs are taboo in Islam and in some sects of Christianity, but this doesn’t matter to me. Neither does it matter that in this region of Florida these pigs are considered an invasive species and a nuisance.
the pig was a sacred animal of the early goddess religions. Cerridwen and other European goddesses of grain harvest and death are also associated with pigs, or a white sow. Robert Graves explores this connection in fourth chapter of ‘The White Goddess’.
could Abrahamic restrictions against pork be a remnant of the patriarchal suppression of preceding matriarchal cultures?
Graves might get into this subject as well (i hope), and i haven’t read far enough to encounter it.
the Chinese New Year is a week from tomorrow. we eagerly await the Year of the Pig. i will continue my work-in-progress as an homage to the new beginning.