~calamity strange~

.on brittle wings.

wednesday i offer you another explanation of the parts that make up one of the ‘boxes’- brought to you by- the collector of things.

this another of my found object assemblage pieces currently on display at chimera arts in santa cruz. from the heretics and heathens show april 1 - may 28, 2011

also made entirely from things i owned and have unearthed out of the nooks and crannies where i hide and store all the little things i collect.

• the box is a reclaimed labyrinth game that i disassembled because i was in need of another box, and the game had long since been broken.  this will explain why, if you look at it carefully, the back surface of the box is not level… it’s titled to let the game ball roll out.
• it’s coated with some brilliant handmade paper that i’d been saving for gift-wrapping, but forfeited for this piece due to it’s irresistible color and texture. 
• the metal frame within is one my first welding projects. 
• the keys are more of the same- from yesterdays post that i have from my grandparents house in ohio, and from the many turn-of-the-century furnishings that lived there.  if you’ve ever seen the keys i wear on my jacket- they are also from this collection, but specifically open the locks on my grandmother’s steamer trunk which is in my art studio and the extremely old/antique captain’s desk that lives a precarious existence in my living room in the company of large dogs and small children.
• ‘famous’ is a belt buckle that i was given as a gift…
• the little camel, is a tiny metal figurine, and honestly i have no idea where i got it.
• the metal printmaking stamp with an image of an unidentified man on it- is another from the handful of them i discovered, tucked away in a junk store in athens, greece.
• the antique bottle, although i have a collection of them, was a gift from a good friend that she found while digging up their property to pour cement somewhere in salinas, california,  perhaps it has a secret history? 
• another madame alexander doll as the centerpiece.  both my daughter’s gave theirs to me, claiming not to want them anymore, and although i have saved them for years with unknown intention… this art endeavor found all sorts of ‘heirlooms’ (if you will) at my mercy.
• she is holding a camera lens filter which i affixed a round mirror to the back of.
• and lastly, the wings, the jaw bones of what i imagine was a coyote, that i found in the desert of nevada, somewhere off of highway 50.

©kelley richardson 2o11