fanciful devices: Art Hand Wounds

A Stone Is Nobody's

A man ambushed a stone. Caught it.
Made it a prisoner.
Put it in a dark room and stood guard over it for the rest of his life.

His mother asked why.

He said, because it's held captive, because it is captured.

Look, the stone is asleep, she said, it does not know whether it's in a garden or not. Eternity and the stone
are mother and daughter; it is you who are getting old. The stone is only sleeping.

But I caught it, mother, it is mine by conquest, he said.

A stone is nobody's, not even its own. It is you who are conquered; you are minding the prisoner, which is yourself,
because you are afraid to go out, she said.

Yes yes, I am afraid, because you have never loved me, he said.

Which is true, because you have always been to me as the stone is to you, she said.

Russell Edson

FAQs

1. Are you a Southeast Asian dancing girl from the 1800s?

No, sorry to disappoint. My avatar and banner images are from an ancient book I found in the depths of my grandmother's cabinets. More on that here.

2. How do you make everything look so old?

First, you need a good oxidizer to brush on every bit of metal you can reach. I'll tell you all about it here.

Then there's this wax. I first mentioned it here. You'll have to scroll down a lot.

3. How can you be so productive?

I'm insanely obsessed and I have no offspring. I do nothing else- I don't have a day job, I don't clean my house or cook, I spend all day in pjs, often completely abandoning personal hygiene... I only interact with other humans when I walk my dog. And I like people! But I prefer dogs.

And I'm sloppy- but I make that sloppiness work for me.

4. Any tips you'd like to share?

No! Except for these 16 posts about techniques and this one about how to find your aesthetic.

5. Would you be offended if I took some inspiration from your designs?

Well, I'd be happier if you outright copied them.

No really, imitation is how we learn. I have enough ideas to go around. And even if I don't- please. No one's going to do this obsessively enough to threaten my business. (Probably.) I learned by copying others and I've seen others copy me as a step toward developing their own voice. So feel free. (I'd love if you tossed me a link in my comments, so I can feel like a proud momma.)

6. What do you look like?

Why, what have you heard? Really? Wow.

2/14/10

Art Hand Wounds

Instead of reaching for a band-aid, I reach for a camera.

The chunk of (dirty) finger I cut off while cutting wire.

My wedding ring on the wrong finger. It no longer fits on my ring finger because of all the weight I've lost forgetting to eat while wrapped up in a project. I should market it as the etsy diet!

7-8 written on my hand to keep track of the amount of oval bezels of 18x13mm size while trolling the net for goodies.

And now, I'm going to go wash my hand, since as I type, I still have blood dripping down my hand. You know when you get scars from doing stuff you're crazy about, you always wear them with pride.

2 comments:

Penelope said...: You shouldn't have washed it off- you should have squeezed it into one of those little rose vials!! Blood of the artist!! Priceless!!! I bet no one else sells blood on Etsy.

*checks*

no, can't see any. You missed out, dawg.; 2/20/10, 6:31 AM
fanciful devices said...: I'm willing to bet someone does. You can type in the most improbable series of words in the search bar and there will always be some match found.; 3/8/10, 7:36 PM