Wednesday Wonder- a bone to pick

I have a morbid fascination with bones, this goes back pretty far. I can remember thinking that porcelain looked bone like. I made a necklace that was "bones" pretty early in my clay experience. It was 1972 and I sold one. I still have some of those beads made from porcelain.

Here is the modern-day version of that necklace here.
This necklace was published in Arts and Crafts magazine when it was still around.

I have lived most of my life in a rural setting and I attribute my obsession fascination to that and probably genetic memory.

We were always around life and death when I was growing up, it is the cycle of the farmer, animal breeder, and rural liver. We also have tons of owls around here and there is this cute little package of bones called an owl pellet. You can open them up and sometimes see a perfect little animal skull with the vertebrae intact. I think of them as owl hair balls.

We used to find whole frogs with the guts squeezed out and just a hollow form from them being smashed on the road. I found a whole horse carcass once. I always wondered what happened to that horse.

Sick, I know, but I always used to think of ancient man and if they would have made a purse out of that frog and if they would have worn mouse bones in their ears for adornment. They probably would have done something with the horse so that there was no trace of it left.

I had a lot of time alone when I was a kid living in what was called the boonies.

So, it would only be natural in my opinion to like bones and to like looking at them. If it is in my art work, it is only a matter of time before it makes it to a Wednesday wonder as a non traditional medium. After just having Halloween and the Day of the Dead. I thought it a perfect time to talk about it.



See more of Francois' art at his site http://francoisrobertphotography.com/
bare bones political statements.

 Here is a Francois Robert's Bone Art.

You can see Francois Roberts awesome pieces at the Carl Hammer Gallery page
where I got these photos.

Here is a fascinating article on using all types of body parts for art medium
http://weburbanist.com/2010/08/23/body-art-creations-made-of-human-flesh-blood-bones/


Sarah Perry is another artist that uses bones and body parts as a medium.
You can see her work here



Sarah Perry's "Pull of the Moon"
photo from http://www.netropolitan.org/

 WOW, that is so beautiful.
You can see some more of Sarah's work at Artnet.com
http://www.artnet.com/artwork/426011091/173223/sarah-perry-the-meek.html.

There is Christy Rupp chicken bone art
http://www.christyrupp.com/new/twomoas.html

There is the Bone Church, this is amazing and very cool!
http://www.artgraphica.net/art-shop/prague-kutna-hora-bone-church.htm

From Curious Expeditions, a site worth going back to again I think!
http://curiousexpeditions.org/?p=79

Then there is bone as canvas, as in Scrimshaw ala Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scrimshaw

Here is an article for cleaning and bleaching bones if you are so inclined to use them in your art.
http://www.using-hydrogen-peroxide.com/peroxide-bleaching-skulls.html

Just a bunch of stuff to bone up on. ;-D