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The Beautiful Creatures Are Going Away
Wood base/stand 22" x 15"
Total height including stand and log approx. 7' 10"
$2,500
This is a unique, one-of-a-kind piece. I found this log in the forested hillside behind our house and got my very strong son to carry it down the hill for me.
"The Beautiful Creatures Are Going Away" (after the lyric in Bruce Cockburn's song "Beautiful Creatures") is commentary on environmental degradation and the impact this has on wildlife. The log itself is as I found it. The very obvious but natural twist in the log reflects what we have done to nature and the environment; how we've warped and distorted it to suit our own purposes. More specifically, the piece functions as both lament and challenge in light of the disappearance and endangerment of species. This is suggested visually in two ways. Sometimes, the bird and animal shapes appear as a negative-space void against a white background; the creatures exist only as a black hole, as an “absence” in the colour of the world; they exist only in memory or as an historical footnote. In other places, the animal images appear almost as ghosts, pale and white against the dark wood of the log. These creatures may still be with us but are under threat from habitat loss, climate change, or as the result of other human activity. The pairs of animal eyes that appear around the log, yellow and wide awake, may seem to glare back at the viewer, or they may be inviting the viewer to meet their gaze, to truly “see” them and engage with their plight. Spirals also figure prominently on the piece. In terms of nature and natural processes, spirals have been used for millennia to represent the life cycles of birth, growth, decay and death. More recently, spirals have come to represent the evolutionary processes by which life adapts and thrives, or fails and dies. Spiritually, spirals speak to the spiritual growth and evolution it seems we humans have to undergo in order to know ourselves not as separate from nature and the creatures around us, but as brother and sister creatures in the web of life. Finally, the hand print represents both our culpability in the current state of affairs, but also the positive changes we can affect for the benefit of the earth and all its creatures, if we are willing to make the spiritual journey and material sacrifices required.
Wood base/stand 22" x 15"
Total height including stand and log approx. 7' 10"
$2,500
This is a unique, one-of-a-kind piece. I found this log in the forested hillside behind our house and got my very strong son to carry it down the hill for me.
"The Beautiful Creatures Are Going Away" (after the lyric in Bruce Cockburn's song "Beautiful Creatures") is commentary on environmental degradation and the impact this has on wildlife. The log itself is as I found it. The very obvious but natural twist in the log reflects what we have done to nature and the environment; how we've warped and distorted it to suit our own purposes. More specifically, the piece functions as both lament and challenge in light of the disappearance and endangerment of species. This is suggested visually in two ways. Sometimes, the bird and animal shapes appear as a negative-space void against a white background; the creatures exist only as a black hole, as an “absence” in the colour of the world; they exist only in memory or as an historical footnote. In other places, the animal images appear almost as ghosts, pale and white against the dark wood of the log. These creatures may still be with us but are under threat from habitat loss, climate change, or as the result of other human activity. The pairs of animal eyes that appear around the log, yellow and wide awake, may seem to glare back at the viewer, or they may be inviting the viewer to meet their gaze, to truly “see” them and engage with their plight. Spirals also figure prominently on the piece. In terms of nature and natural processes, spirals have been used for millennia to represent the life cycles of birth, growth, decay and death. More recently, spirals have come to represent the evolutionary processes by which life adapts and thrives, or fails and dies. Spiritually, spirals speak to the spiritual growth and evolution it seems we humans have to undergo in order to know ourselves not as separate from nature and the creatures around us, but as brother and sister creatures in the web of life. Finally, the hand print represents both our culpability in the current state of affairs, but also the positive changes we can affect for the benefit of the earth and all its creatures, if we are willing to make the spiritual journey and material sacrifices required.
Canadian Dollars