Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star, How We Wonder What You Are—Valentine’s Day, 2021

 

Tomorrow is Valentine’s Day, a made up holiday that touches the most vulnerable feeling of all living creatures (not sure about blood worms, though…). All “sins” will be allowed tomorrow from sugar, alcohol, amorous escapades and the long glaze at long stem roses to pick the one that says it best.

While Valentine’ Day is a made up holiday, the origin of the chubby little cherub shooting arrows at lovers goes back to Greek and then Roman mythology. Indeed, Cupid has his origins in the Greek god Eros (hence the word erotic) who was Aphrodite’s son.  He fell in love with a human mortal woman named Psyche of whom Aphrodite got jealous. And then it gets a complicated story between son, bride and mother-in-law…! But eventually Psyche and Eros move to mount Olympus and she is awarded immortality for being a good wife!!

The Romans simplified the story by renaming Eros Cupid. But I assume that at social gatherings on the mountain, Eros always introduced his wife as “and this is my lovely Psyche”!!!

… But it has been a strange year so far. I mean the past 12 months. Last year this time the statistics were about a virus no one invited, no one knew about the virus. This year it is still about that virus, but it has changed already, it has mutated to fool us all.

We do not know if it is a boy or girl, man or woman, shaped like an old crown or secretly changing its internal codes when all around are asleep.  

I wanted to put these two realities, tomorrow’s Valentine Day and the changing virus, into a single expression.

So, in my "materials" bin I had a small piece of wild rabbit fur and petrified wood pieces from the desert. I made a stand out of the wood segments to hang the rabbit fur from it when painted. Here are the two simple raw materials:

As always, I would paint on the skin side and leave the very attractive winter coat fur-side untouched:

 

I looked at the blemishes, creases and colour variations of the skin, and it seemed to me that a pair of eyes would nicely occupy the space of the skin by using an existing crease as the contour for the nose. Of course the bloody spot needed to be covered, so I opted for some sort of face cover to stay within the new reality of daily life.

 Here is the initial shape and colour application. Contrary to previous works, I decided to mix green, blue, yellow and brown oil paint till I got a shade of hazel I liked for the eyes.

The blue head and face covering decided to take on a waviness I had not planned. But using my painting knife (still do not use a palette) the texture somehow became harmoniously surrounded by the gray and white fur.

What good are sea waves without snail shells on the beach? And how can anyone paint on rabbit skin in Arizona without adding turquoise stones!

Now I needed to figure a creative way to hang this picture from the poles of the wood stand. I had a pair of handmade earring that never found the right ear. So, decided to use them to “hook and hang” the rabbit skin:

… When I was done, I looked at the painting, and it looked back at me.  It was an atypical look though. For a second it looked like a Bedouin’s look from the Moroccan Sahel his face covered enough to protect from the airborne sand swirls.  A second later it was his wife that was looking at me!!!

Perhaps that is exactly what things look now as we continue our every changing, often unpredictable journey from 2020 to 2021.

PS/ I started this blog on October 1, 2017 to share my painting and carving techniques using animal skin as the main material. Today's post is my 100th and I am delighted that to date, three thousand readers of this blog have shared their feedback with me from 23 countries.

As the horned desert hare seems to say in the above photo " We may be doing something creative"!

February 14, 2021

© Vahé A. Kazandjian, 2021