killed by art

 These two scissor-cut ornaments were in a flat envelope at the thrift store, never having been opened. I didn't know exactly what they were but picked them up for a dollar anyway.

Made in Norway so of course they had to be something pretty great.  They were hand cut by Karen Bit Vejle, with her grandmother's tiny embroidery scissors. I looked her up- she does wall sized cut outs , by heart, one little mistake and the entire 6 months of work on one panel would be destroyed- yeah sure, I want to go through her destroyed pile!! Anyway, remarkable skill? Here is a link; HERE

It made me think of artists dying for their art- usually toxic chemicals in paints or resins-  artists ,too many to count,  have died from that, and there are a few who have died from large sculptures falling over on them. One Marco Gusimo for instance, who crafted a 100 foot crucifix in honor of Pope John Paul the two... it fell over on him and crushed him to death. Loads of performance artists get killed by their art- John Jaire Villamil's piece about Bogota- plastic garbage bag over his head , not sure how that is significant but he suffocated. Death by garbage bag! Clever.

Another artist took a tiny sailboat out to sea- never was found.

Pippa Bacca hitchhiked from Italy to the Balkans, rather, that was her artistic intent, in a wedding dress- half way  there she was raped and murdered.

Giuseppe Francisci died from gasses while making glass and stained glass.

Heavy metals in art supplies usually kills the artist, eventually , and of course there is always resin, fiberglass and formaldehyde, killing too many artists to list. 

I am thinking that Karen Bit's art form is relatively safe- does one ever die of a paper cut? Maybe by 1,000 paper cuts as in Japanese torture, but scissoring huge paper cut -outs seems a good medium to work with.

And that brings to mind this- last night I  was compelled to look up local obituaries and  facebook to see if anyone had died, Sure enough one of my artist  friends from way back in the day, living in the harbor had died. He, too,  was killed by his art.  He carved internationally prized pipes out of rare wood and bone and whatever else  made a gorgeous piece- he did smoke them to make sure that they drew nicely even though his pipes were works that one might keep behind glass. Lung cancer that took off to brain and spine , he quit smoking after a heart attack , but did he really- sort of doubt it. He was a man who enjoyed a good cigar as well. 

Beware of your art!

This is NOT coffee- Mr. Squeeze- The- Life- Out- Of- Everything  runs water through the grounds until there is no oomph left- he likes very weak so called coffee, Mr. Frugal. Shades of the depression era, I reckon. If he liked to drink tea , I am sure that the tea would be the rich color of air by the end of it. Waste not! 

I wasted some dollars on flowers for the party- baby's breath, lots of it!

It does not stay plump for very long - light and airy- and sweet like real baby's breath  , turns into crispy little balls on the tips of thin stalks. I like it at all stages. Pointillist art?

 

After gathering flowers I went to the dollar store to get more of Mary Moon's cleaning supply- Fabuloso! The fragrance is so fresh I could dab it on my pulse points and call myself fancy-take -me-out-on-the-town Darlin'.  Tomorrow i will use all two bottles I am sure, There is much cleaning to do.