Monster!

I made this in class the other day for an example of a security object. I also made a more traditional pillow with a moth on it, but I love the monster best- this is a keeper.

Monster just happened. I wanted to show how to make an irregular shaped pillow, so I drew a blob for starters... I was going to make the hair out of yarn or roving but then I tried shredded cloth on a whim. I ended up knotting the cloth, resulting in a) what grendel's hair would look like with short dreadlocks b) looking like me with short hair- exactly why I don't cut it. But it's quite stylish on a monster!

Drawings, swirls, a big button I found in the Wal-mart parking lot, a little green button I had forever. Perfectly friendly, this monster.

Of course, Bad-Bear wanted to play with it- but I wouldn't let her. So instead she somehow ninja'ed down this lovely little heart shaped charm mojo I had made for a student...that I had stayed up until 12 last night working on (a record for me! but then, I did manage a nap earlier)... I don't know how bear got a hold of it. It was finished, drying and on the top shelf of the bookcase (beyond even extendo-bear). But, like I said, she has magic ninja powers. And LOVES to 'sculpt', 'paint', 'read', 'color', and apparently 'alter' my art projects. The little mojo was chewed and scattered all over the bedroom when I woke up.

Somehow, that doesn't matter to much. The mojo magic was in the making- it is over and there is no need to make another one. Every artist knows that destruction is creations best friend- you cannot have one without the other. Sometimes the karma of art is creation in order to be destroyed, permitting a cleansing and restoration of natural balance. Native Americans knew this. Most cultures practice this, and it is what separates aesthetic art (the type that lives forever in a museum) from...what to call it... 'practical' art (the art that is created to do something, with a finite purpose in mind). Sometimes we forget that art is not supposed to last forever, that it can wear out, fall apart, let go. That sometimes the life of creations is short, and that can be terribly sad, but it clears room for the new. Fresh air, open windows, wind blowing through your soul.