Amulet
collage (wood fan slat, rose petals, brass discs, Polaroid photo, and magazine clipping), gesso, India ink, Cray pas, metallic wax paste on black 90lb Stonehenge paper
5 3/4 x 5 3/4 inches
I’ve been trying to finish this stupid thing for weeks. I finally slathered a bunch of gesso over it this afternoon while watching something on PBS about Catherine the Great.
It’s kind of hard to believe it’s on black paper, isn’t it?
The Polariod is of a life-size bronze sculpture, Lawrence Tenney Stevens’ Alba, that was wrapped up and crated. (You can kind of see what she looked like here.) She was on her way to the conservation lab. Because she looked like a mummy in a coffin, I thought it would be funny to photograph Baubo with her, as if Baubo were an amulet. It’s highly unethical to play with the art, but sometimes the temptation was just too much.
I pulled apart the Polaroid, only using the front plastic layer which contains the photo emulsion. I sanded the back side, rubbing the image completely away on the left-hand side. The jagged, dark form showing through the photo is actually a burned fragment of a magazine page.
The fan slat was covered with red oil pastel, then gone over with metallic gold paste wax. I love the combination, because it mimics traditional gold leaf over red bole.
red paper boat 