Dead Fly 97 - REAL Dead Fly
Solarium
Mixed media
approximately 10" by 5"
A few months into the Dead Fly project back in 2017 I had the good fortune of finding a mummified Dead Fly in my kitchen sink. It was completely intact, wings still attached, legs up*. Perfect! I carefully set it in a little glass dish with cellophane over it and set it in a safe place for future use. Over the next couple years, periodically I would examine it and toy in my mind with how it would be memorialized and preserved for posterity. Eventually, this object d'art came to mind. I have always enjoyed working with miniatures and found this project to be quite involved and a lot of fun.
I got the dome from Michaels (art and craft supplies). The rug is a carefully cut out and fringed piece of tapestry I got from JoAnn Fabrics. The doily is a piece of lace cut out of a ribbon. The vase is a small ivory bead with painted weeds for the flowers with a bit of moss for the leaves. I made the table using balsa wood for the top and bits of stems from the trumpet vine that grows on our porch for the legs. A tiny bead is the drawer handle. The vase is a wooden peg which I then marbleized, an old technique used by master painters. The leaves are ribbon and wire, cut, painted and shaped. The floor boards are balsa wood scored with a knitting needle and wood grained, another old master painting technique. The Japanese screen was tricky to make but eventually came together - cardboard, paint, duct tape and velum on which is a rather whimsical painting of a Dead Fly with cherry blossoms around it.
*As I said the project was tricky and rather delicate especially at one point when in the course of carting this project and the fly back and forth to my studio I accidentally broke off one of the legs! But a magnifying glass to assist and a pin and a drop of Super Glue saved the day!
Dunno if you read the Lovejoy novels. Also dunno if you'd like the stories; but the protagonist is a rather unlovable rogue who knows everything in the universe about antiques. The point is, there's always an element of repair, copying, and outright counterfeiting. He is personally able to create ANYTHING through dozens of techniques, described in detail over the books. An artistic polymath; as you seem to be.
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