Thursday, August 10, 2006

Six Legged Things



That account of flies:

We were looking out the window of Neil’s attic, years ago when the attic was just an attic. These wonderful big blue bottle flies lay dead on the windowsills. Neil told me they were from the previous summer, when flies had been a real problem. Naturally I asked if I could have them, and Neil said okay and fetched a jar to put them in without (to his credit) even making a face.

They were lovely dead flies.

I knew I wanted to use them but didn’t know for what. The little jar was nearly half full. I liked the way the jar of flies looked so didn’t mind that they sat for weeks while I worked on other sculptures.

Finally, I decided to make a sculpture with a fly lollipop. I opened the jar to choose flies for the lollipop only to discover that the jar had been a grape jelly jar and that the flies... smelled exactly like grape jelly.

They’d become a bit dry and some of the heads fell off so that I had to glue them back on. That was okay. But they smelled like grape jelly.

I realized too late that I’d glued a couple of the heads on upside-down. I didn’t care about that nearly so much as that they smelled like grape jelly.

Now, you might not see this as a problem. I’m guessing that most of you haven’t worked with flies that smell exactly like grape jelly. Maybe you won't take my word that it’s an experience you want to forget, but can't. You might try it yourself and never ever eat raisins again.
Ever.

I don’t have a photo of “Lolly and Her Insignificant Angel” on hand. Possibly Ravyn does, or Robert and Roland, who live with Lolly.

7 comments:

jestersdna said...

I could still eat rasins..
Did you know my lovely wife is terrified of bugs. She was going to refill the birdfeeder one day but couldn't because there was a grasshopper sitting on the back porch. And then there was the day the flying roach got in the house....

Anonymous said...

Eek and for me the time a cockroach crawled down my top when I worked in a laundry, that was a tad off-putting...

Anyway just wanted to let you know that the Poppets arrived safe and sound in the UK. One was travel sick and feels a little worse for wear and all 9 are jet lagged but they are looking forward to exploring their new home and will no doubt send postcards of their favourite discoveries back to the desert soon...
Thank you for taking the time to pack them so very carefully - I will be loathe to part with any of them come Christmas but know each little poppet will find a good home with my friends

Also whilst looking at some local art exhibitions in the Midlands, I noticed some work which I thought you might find fascinating, called Futurescape. The abstract paintings are based on climate changes due to global warming as seen via satellite mapping of the planet. The images offer an alternative view of the earth but also look biological to me - cells, microbes, amoebae - they look asexual, androgynous, both male and female - like the edges of jigsaw pieces or like an angel preparing to take flight... Hmmm, I think (I'm not terribly technophillic) I've attached a link so you can see what you think...

http://www.warwickshireartsweek.co.uk/eventdetail.asp?artistID=347

I hope you enjoy and I look forward to the Halloween sale. Thank you kindly for including a discount voucher in my parcel, I'm sure it will get spent quite, quite easily

Big smiles
Len

Anonymous said...

You've started my day off with a smile.

He reminds me of drawings of a character called the Humbug in one of my favorite children's books, "The Phantom Tollbooth".

Except that the Humbug would never have looked quite as jolly as this fellow. He seems to be in the middle of some sort of lively insect jig. Very cleverly done, Lisa!

Carl V. Anderson said...

Ah, those are so much fun! Would love to see the other picture if someone can track it down. Don't know if I could stomach a half full jar of dead flies that smell like grape jelly though!

Dan Guy said...

That is a profoundly disturbing sense-impression.

Derek Ash said...

"Sometimes it will be ugly, other times beautiful, most days you probably won't be able to tell the difference."

Absolutely.

Lisa have I sent you a copy of "Mother's Heirloom"?

From rats to poppets to insects... and everything in between.

K said...

I would happily send you interesting dead bugs, but most of the ones on this side of the pond are teeny. And I don't know if they'd get through Customs.

I've been offline for a while (busy) and have really missed everybody...