I have decided to stick with the topic/theme of the factors that can inhibit grief. I decided to stick with this topic because it is something i feel passionate about and i know a wide audience has experienced. The first theme has eight subtopics; If the loss event is too painful to express grief, if early childhood messages Inhibit expression of feelings, if the relationship was problematic, if old loss material creates an overload, if the mourner feels disenfranchised, pre-existing psychopathology, lack of social support, or if there is a lack of tangible evidence of death. Each of these sub-topics will be represented as an animal skull.
The Loss event being too painful will be represented as a bison skull with red beads and roses spilling out of its eyes, nose, and mouth, smothering the the skull.
The Relationship between the griever and the person they lost will be represented by two mink skulls facing away from each other. There will be red beads connecting them while red bead and red flowers spill from their eyes and mouth. The skull representing the deceased will have black beads coming from the mouth or nose as well as connecting it to the other skull.
The loss event being overwhelming will be represented by a chicken skull resting in the mouth of a coyote skull. Red beads dripping from the mouth of the coyote and well as its eyes.
The mourner feeling disenfranchised will be be represented as a muskrat skull facing towards the wall with only the strings with no beads on them coming from it. Representing how they feel unworthy or ashamed of their grief.
The childhood messages will be another coyote skull with a muzzle made of rope and fabric in primary colors holding is mouth shut For lack of social support i had the idea of having clear beads leading to the skull while red and black beads drip from it, showing that they cant connect to others.
And the one I am most excited about, lack of tangible evidence of death. For this one i wanted to still have beads leading to the location where the skull would be but instead of a skull there would be a bouquet of flowers along with candles.
Pre-existing psychopathology has been one I've been struggling with a little bit so any suggestions on imagery would be greatly appreciated. I had an idea of making pill-like beads but I'm not confident about the idea.
It will be shown hanging on a wall and be 4'9" across at its longest with the center at eye level. The strings of red beads will be glass varying in size and opacity to create variation and visual interest. The creme/bone colored stringed beads will be uniform in size and opacity.
An issue I'm having is figuring out transport. I want the strings to be able to be attached and then detached to make it easier to transport. My idea is to put small magnets at the end of the string and onto the skull to attach them without it being permanent. If anyone has better suggestions for how to make transport easier id love to hear it!<3
I agree with the others in saying that we'd like to see your plan for how it will all hang, seems like the weight could become a real issue. My idea for transportation is a big different than the others, but perhaps use a piece of wood, like 5' across, and put it at the top of the piece and attach the skulls to that so it all hangs down. So that, the piece will hang via the wood plank (which you can stain darker to better fit the theme), and when you want to move it you can just take it down as a whole, maybe put a sheet over it, and be careful from there. Just another option…
This is solid planning, and I can see this for sure becoming a very strong artwork. I appreciate the analysis your artwork and you provide because it makes it just an even stronger work of art. I do have one question though, is there an order they will be presented in? I. Love. That. You. Are. Using. Skulls. It's great.
I really like how you're going to display the skulls and keeping p the theme with keeping it natural and adding the beads to it. I also think you should go with the idea with the pill shaped beads. Maybe even make a few sample strings with it and see how it looks and if you're down for it or not. For transportation, magnets do sound like a good idea, but depending on the size it may be a bit difficult to conceal them. A way to conceal them would be what Lani said by using the hooks of necklaces.
You're doing great so far! Keep up the good work, love
I am absolutely obsessed with your piece already and I appreciated how in depth you went with analysis. I do think you should add more sketches or thumbnails of how they are going to be placed together or even test out how some of your skulls will connect with the beading to make sure it all works out. Plus, to give you some advice about transportation, especially with the beading, I would try looking into maybe attaching hooks, like the backing of a necklace, so that when it comes to moving the skulls you would just have to detach a couple hooks and your piece would still be in good condition.
I am loving the continuous theme that can be followed by the overall use of skulls you plan on using! It's definitely interesting in the way that although it is technically 3D, it is almost like a beautified relief. I would recommend on including possibly more sketches in the sense of positioning on the wall so that we know whether the pieces will be showed together or separately; and if together, what order will they hang in? I agree with the magnets on the ends of bead strings to help with transportation, but it might look odd when attached to the skulls.