Sticks and Stones and Skin and Bones

I started my skull collection there. I remember one Xmas when I was 19...I bought my girlfriend a coyote skull and had one of the guys from the store do wood-burning on it. It was amazing...he was so talented....but when i came back a few months later to commission another piece his coworker told me he was gone...and that 'The Demons took him'... I took that to mean that the slight 'offishness' I had detected was in fact a large and crippling gap between he and at least someone with no sense of humor and the willingness to call 911. Waste of an artist.....

And of a skull collection. These are NOT mine. Mine are lost due to compramise, neglect and soul-decay.

Anyway - that particular skull, the last one he made before the Demons got him...I wrapped meticulously in beautiful glossy black and way too expensive for my salary - wrapping paper. My mother accused me of 'Blasphemy' for the wrapping paper and kicked me out of the house after hitting me with a box of breakfast cereal...which I was also forced to clean up. Needless to say it was the best gift i remember giving anyone.

So...my point?

I recently made a new friend who invited me over to "Help her with a Strange Artistic Block" she had.

So...I got there and low and behold she had the COOLEST STUFF EVER!!! Her apartment was filled with little interesting objects...large chests of collections....quite possibly the most organized pack-rat I've ever encountered.

I had brought my camera and a couple of sketch books along just in case her invitation was literal (good move). It was as it turns out - quite happily.

Things just started moving. We exchanged ideas...talked about past projects...future ideas...and soon i was picking things up from around the apartment and arranging them.

Below is the result of a couple of hours of just playing. We took turns building the basic sculptures and then adding on to each others.

It as the most fun I've had in a while....