I think skeletons are beautiful. I like bones for many reasons and a large part of that is because they are the most lasting part of a creature. I find it fascinating that some bones have lasted for millions of years as fossils and that so much can be understood about a creature from what has happened to its bones. I like skulls especially. They're so elegant, with such graceful lines. For the last few years I've been spending a lot of my spare time drawing skeletons from photographs, in museums and from the small collection I have. Part of this interest is linked in with my love of cabinets of curiosities. Museums grew out of these collections, and it's usually the museums which have been less tampered with that I find more interesting. The Pitt Rivers Museum in Oxford is a cornucopia of strange and wonderful things that a reasonably eccentric man collected. I want my house to be like that, a goldmine of unlikely things gathered together. Some of my cirrent jewellery relfects that. I know people don't necessarily want a huge museum cabinet of oddities, but they might want to show their love of unusual things, like skeletons, with what they wear. So I'm providing a way of collecting things that's a bit more portable.
Sunday 8 February 2009
An explanation of some of my recent work
I think skeletons are beautiful. I like bones for many reasons and a large part of that is because they are the most lasting part of a creature. I find it fascinating that some bones have lasted for millions of years as fossils and that so much can be understood about a creature from what has happened to its bones. I like skulls especially. They're so elegant, with such graceful lines. For the last few years I've been spending a lot of my spare time drawing skeletons from photographs, in museums and from the small collection I have. Part of this interest is linked in with my love of cabinets of curiosities. Museums grew out of these collections, and it's usually the museums which have been less tampered with that I find more interesting. The Pitt Rivers Museum in Oxford is a cornucopia of strange and wonderful things that a reasonably eccentric man collected. I want my house to be like that, a goldmine of unlikely things gathered together. Some of my cirrent jewellery relfects that. I know people don't necessarily want a huge museum cabinet of oddities, but they might want to show their love of unusual things, like skeletons, with what they wear. So I'm providing a way of collecting things that's a bit more portable.
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On 'untouched' museums: have you ever been to Whitby Museam? It's not as big as Pitt Rivers, but has the same feel, but with a more oceanic slant, and lots of fossils set directly into the wall.
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I've not been to Whitby, more's the pity. I'd love to go, though - and thanks for the link, that museum looks like my kind of place.
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