Vanitas, Veritas and the Use of Skulls to Describe Transience

As an Armenian kid I have seen human skulls in churches and other hallowed grounds. These were the skulls of Armenians who perished during the exodus from Armenia and modern day Turkey through the deserts of Asia Minor and the Middle East in the early 1900s. My grandfather survived that walk and shaped my childhood with his stories. https://vahezen.blogspot.com/2014/07/ottoman-times-armenian-timemakers.html

For me skulls always represented death, violent death and macabre feelings.

It is only recently that I have realized how skulls and bones can also mean remembrance and continuity. Similar to Georgia O’Keeffe who discovered cow and horse bones in the New Mexico desert and decided to draw and paint them posthumously, I encounter elk, coyote, wolf, badger, peccary, deer, cow and horse bones in Arizona’s high desert. I have used some of these findings in my work (see my previous postings) but did not venture into using skulls as one often finds in the Native American artwork of the U.S Southwest.

I think skulls reminded me of the piles and piles of human skulls displayed in Armenian churches.

… It is elk and deer hunting season now and when I walk in the high desert and high elevation pine forests of Northern Arizona, I often find carcasses of big game left by hunters after they have taken the meat. Vultures, coyotes, foxes, and the underground fauna inhabitants appreciate what is left behind and often clean up everything within days. Unless one comes across a skull that has not been broken to pieces by coyotes.

I recently found an elk skull in perfect shape and decided to “immortalize” it by exploring its postmortem expression.

… My favorite human skull use in still art painting is by Charles Allen Gilbert in 1892 where he used an optical illusion of a woman sitting in front of a mirror pursuing the vanity of believing that beauty is forever.  The reflection of the woman's image in the mirror shapes the scenery as a human skull expressing the message of the artist that death is the final step in the vanity of out life. Gilbert's message was adopted by many painters in the 17^th century when Vanitas painting and painters reached the zenith of their expression in emphasizing the concept of transitoriness and futility of our existence through skulls, hourglasses and smoke.

In modern times, I have been most impressed by the vanitas paintings of Frida Kahlo “Without Hope” (1945) and Gustav Klimt “Death and Life” (1908). But still, both are macabre and not celebratory.

I wanted to transform my elk skull into a multi-optical expression by using materials not commonly used in animal skull artwork, especially Native American artwork using buffalo skulls which are large, abundant and harvested in ranches away from the elements of nature.

First Decision: Since the skull I found had no horns left on it by the hunter, what horns should I use as substitute?  Buffalo horns from Mexico are too large and their texture did not seem to fit with the smooth and long lines of the elk skull. Deer antlers are too diminutive to be worn by an elk; and, antelope horns are too small.

Keeping in mind my goal to “go out of the box” regarding the common practices in Native American skull artwork, I found water buffalo horns from India. I liked their size and shiny, happy look.

This is how the skull and horn were gauged for proportion and look:

I had some stones and Arizona turquoise and placed them upon the face of the skull for delineation of texture and colour.

Second Decision:  The forehead of elk and buffalo are flat and large enough to accommodate painting of nature or hunting scenes. Many artists also use that space to inlay precious stones, glass beads or woven material dyed in tribal or regional colours.

Leaving that forehead space untouched looks like unfinished work, but again I wanted to stay away from painting or beads.

Well, I had preserved fox hide but never used any part of it in my work. I decided to give it a chance by adding blue glass eyes to its demeanor.

The deep orangey-gold colour of the fox fur gave a good contrast to the whitish skull bones, and I though two stones I had picked up in China may continue the colour contrast:

Third Decision: Animal skulls look good with elongated side-structures such as leather, tassels and feathers. I tried the feathers but again, did not want to duplicate common practice.

                   

I often use squirrel hide and tail in my artwork. Especially the types of squirrel which are native to Arizona – the Kaibab and Abert squirrels. October to December is also squirrel hunting season and one can prepare the hides to use all year on various projects.  These squirrels are large and their meat is also considered a delicacy:

     

So, here are Abert squirrel tails I decided to use:

   

I have never seen an animal skull artwork where squirrel tails was used, and that made me happy.

Fourth Decision: The water buffalo horns have a symmetrical curvature so it was not difficult to place them in good symmetry on the skull. The epoxy would dry overnight allowing me to add the squirrel tails and finish the work.

But, the Chinese stones looked totally “fake” and out of context when I placed the horns on. It was time to find another material for the area under the fox’s snout.

Fifth Decision: And that was a peacock feather that has been on the side of my workbench for a while. Perfect. Now I had the colours, the round shape I was looking for and the symbolism of the “third eye”.

My elk was about ready to wear its fluffy side-tails and be placed on my wall!

… So, here is the final product I photographed with a Navajo Native American artwork as background. I wanted to show that although skull artwork is cherished in Native American Southwestern artwork, when my elk is placed next to a Navajo sand painting it shows its distinct attitude and uncommon use of materials.

Now it is on the wall and it makes my effort worthwhile. The side view also shows the complete set of teeth perhaps tracing a content smile…

Vanitas and Veritas expressed by the elk skull I am glad I did not leave in the woods to weather and crumble.

November 14, 2018

© Vahé A. Kazandjian, 2018