Today, the topic is bones: musings and images, both of bones themselves and some of my pieces that incorporate them. This is a huge topic to tackle, for I have been collecting and working with bones for decades. I have wonderful stories--boiling down deer legs to extract the animal’s toe and shin bones, playing with sea robin skulls, hanging out at the (sadly defunct) Bone Room in Berkeley... I will certainly post Bones 2.0, Bones 3.0 and so on as I am inspired in coming months, and will share more of the particulars. May this entry serve as a teaser that will pull you in for more.
I am drawn to the remarkable forms that bones take, each of course serving a specific and essential structural purpose. And so different--the weightlessness of bird bones, supporting the bird but allowing it to soar; the solidity of a buffalo jaw; the strength for bearing down evident in a horses' tooth; the mandala-like form of concentric rings on a fish vertebrae. Each a truly magnificent design.
I am drawn to the remarkable forms that bones take, each of course serving a specific and essential structural purpose. And so different--the weightlessness of bird bones, supporting the bird but allowing it to soar; the solidity of a buffalo jaw; the strength for bearing down evident in a horses' tooth; the mandala-like form of concentric rings on a fish vertebrae. Each a truly magnificent design.
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Sea turtle plastron (lower shell).
It's fascinating that bones hold such a draw for me, since at this point in my life I am quite concerned with bone density. I can almost feel my own bones tingling in sympathetic recognition as I handle the bones of other creatures, feel their heft, clean them, sometimes drill through them or even dye them. I am saddened by the fact that for most people the typical first association with bone is death. Yes, the bone I work with is no longer living tissue, replete with blood and moisture (living bone is one fourth water), but it holds the imprint of the animal it supported.
Here is a selection of pieces I have made with bone.
Here is a selection of pieces I have made with bone.
Includes sea robin (fish) skull, fish jaw, deer toe bones.
Unidentified bone.
Main bone is a bird carcass. The "arms" are fish bones.
Bird bone over cow bones, with what I believe to be pig's "knuckles" in the lower ring.
Bone is unidentified.
Top to bottom: fish bone, fish vertebrae, cowfish "skin" (bony plates), deer "needle" bones.
Main bone is a turtle scute.
Sea robin (fish) skull, flanked by deer toes and capped by a fish jaw. The round objects are jingle shells.
The piece is called "Evolution." A bird skeleton is flanked by an unidentified bone and there is part of a deer bone in the upper right.
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