Living in the Valley
Collages numbers 98, 99, and 100, mounted together on a collaged and polyeurethaned piece of scrap panelling, which is mounted on an old swinging door, freshly painted, along with supporting three dimensional elements including, but not limited to, a wooden spoon, a spring, a knob from an old gas stove, a walnut and its shell, a dirty blue bird house, a rusty goat bell, a broken tub faucet, an empty scotch tin, parts of cigar boxes, a basket of Ak-Mak cracker bread, a utility light globe full of Vernon county soil, a framed piece of 180 grit sandpaper, farmer matches, Nag Champa incense cones, an empty Mexican soda bottle, a Daredevil lure, an iron candle holder, and a bees' wax candle.
c098 There Are Three
c099 Fundamental Needs
c100 We Share
same size as your average door, plus a little more
$5000, will deliver for reimbursement of gas money
Living in the Valley is the greatest thing I have ever created. When I began working on this series in March 2007, my intention was to execute an idea I had in way back in December 2004, which was to employ farmer and bird images in a series of three collages illustrating the three fundamental needs of birds (and man): food, shelter, and water. The collages would be framed in three seat frames I'd been dragging around since purchasing an excellent dining room set in 1991 from St. Vincent de Paul, which, save these seat frames, I took to the dump in 1998.
It all started so innocently, but as always, one thing led to another. At each step, with each new idea, I had to pause and think to myself, "Oh...Ooh!...I could blah blah blah..." and "Aw, man...this is gonna take forever!" and "Misewell get busy...this is easily going to be the greatest thing I've ever created!" I was amused more than once as this piece essentially created itself, with no instruction manual. All it took was the original intention to make three collages and a basement waiting to be cleaned up. See, at about the same time, I decided it was time to use some of the junk I'd acquired over the years. I needed to get it out of the basement because we wanted to move the washer and dryer to a different wall and add a utility sink. Living in the Valley is actually nothing more than a fit of creative organizing!
In the end, what we have here is a masterpiece heavily influenced by my ritualistic Catholic upbringing. How dare I call my own creation a masterpiece? I don’t know…how many other kinetic works of art have you seen lately that appeal to all five of your senses? When I activate it, I think a prayer of thanks—I reflect on a thought I had in 2004 when we moved to the Mississippi corridor: "It's no wonder I feel so good...food, shelter, and water...in abundance!"
The suggested procedure for interacting and activating Living in the Valley is as follows:
1. Rub faucet.
2. Strike match on sandpaper.
3. Light candle.
4. Light incense off candle flame and place in soil.
5. Take cracker bread.
6. Push down on wooden spoon (lower left hand corner), drawing bottle up and setting bell swinging and ringing, creating a unique experience every time.
7. Step back, look, listen, smell, and enjoy your Ak-Mak.
Now...there has GOT be a collector out there who cannot live without this, and can see the value of investing in this piece. There simply cannot be anything like it in the world. It has been manufactured with the patient and skilled hands of a craftsman who has been creating artwork for 15 years with no sign of ever stopping, and beyond that, it's just plain cool. Really cool. Isn't it? Or is my ego getting in the way of objectivity?