Last Piece of 2012

Towards the end of last year and into the beginning of this year I've been making it a point to spend more time alone... to do some soul searching, you might say.  On one particularly warm day I took a trip out to my favorite tea shop in Stony Brook  and then explored bits of Avalon and David Weld's nature sanctuaries.  This was only just a few weeks following the "superstorm" mild hurricane that rocked the north shore of the island, so David Weld's was full of downed trees and various wooden debris left by the crews who had cut through trunks and branches to clear the paths.  While walking through a deep part of one of the trails I found this interesting scrap of wood that had a beautiful ink-like pattern on the bark and a rich reddish interior, which I couldn't help but take with me and which has become the last finished piece of mine to be created in the year 2012.

Things Left Behind
~14" x  5" x 3"
Wood, Macaw and Peacock Feathers, Glass, Acrylic Paint, Spray Paint, Gold Thread

(detail)

(reverse)

 (reverse detail)

The macaw and peacock feathers were picked up by my close friend who works at the Game Farm in Manorville.  The glass is pieces of a very nice double-blown glass teacup that my sister bought me which fell and shattered some time ago.  The other materials were all bought for some other original intended purpose and were left over.  So, indeed, this piece is made entirely of things left behind.