Nesting

"Every time I would show them to people, some would say they're paintings, others called them sculptures. And then I heard this story about Calder," he said, referring to the artist Alexander Calder, "that nobody would look at his work because they didn't know what to call it. As soon as he began calling them mobiles, all of a sudden people would say 'Oh, so that's what they are.' So I invented the term 'Combine' to break out of that dead end of something not being a sculpture or a painting. And it seemed to work."

-Robert Rauschenberg

I'm working on this new piece that I haven't yet titled. After a ridiculous amount of back and forth on tiny little details that no one will ever notice, it's really coming together.

The premise: It's Bernice's nest collection. Collected 1934-37, from different towns in Wisconsin.  Bernice was an avid bird watcher and travelled around Wisconsin with her family.  Everywhere they went, she searched the ground for fallen bird nests.  She always looked around to make sure she wasn't disturbing an active family home and then would wrap the nest carefully and bring it back with her.  Proud of her collection, with the help of her father, she mounted each nest and framed her collection.

I used old playing cards from a collection my mom kept as a kid.  The nests I've collected over the years and made one of them, as well.  The vintage blue velvet in the background is one of my favorite pieces of fabric my sister gave me a hundred years ago and I've eked it out for so long 'cuz I hate to see it go.  This is the last of it.