Dragons & Other Fanciful Critters
I’ve explained elsewhere that Oriental, North Carolina, has as its town mascot an Oriental Dragon. So, naturally, dragons appeared in our yard art, along with other sorts of creatures. The bull and the elephant are formed on danforth anchors, the elephant incorporating stove legs and a beaded hoodah. One of the dragons incorporates chains and plow blades; the other is based on a fence puller and hundred of tiny plastic discs.
The little scorpion is made from fan housing and a gas regulator.
The Rockinghorsefly started its life as an exercycle.
The seven lighthouses of North Carolina
Okay, the story: I used to spend hours walking everyday when we lived in North Carolina. Hours and hours. Since we lived in a rural area, I frequently encountered road kill during my time on the roads: deer, copperheads, raccoons, birds…all manner of fauna.
I got in the habit of picking some of the fresher materials up and macerating it in my compost bin, letting the worms clean it for me. It wasn’t the most pleasant pasttime, carrying dead things home, but I retrieved and recycled a lot of animal parts this way.
A taxidermist from Wilmington saw some of my work once and offerred to trade me a big sack of unclaimed deer skulls, some with antlers still attached, if I would make him a piece of art out of a swordfish bill. It occurred to me that this would be a lot more sanitary than my way of acquiring material, so I agreed to work on his project. Then he specified what he wanted: he wanted the seven lighthouses of North Carolina painted on the bill.
“Oh, gross!” I thought, but I went through with it, even through every single time I sat down to paint, I literally had to force myself to pick up the brush and it took me the better part of a year complete. This just isn’t the kind of thing I am inspired to do, but the final product was nowhere near as corny as I thought it was going to be.