Old image of house and land from the Great Depression, Dust Bowl era, and parched earth picture cut and reassmebled on of a duplicate to get cracks in the piece.  Bottle full of graveyard dirt.  Part of the three that will be in a traveling show for CIVA.

The idea for these bottles predated the whole series, I had wanted to make little “message in a bottle” type pieces to give away and have been fascinated by the conept of the message in a bottle theme since hih school.  Being able to reproduce the jars and bottles to leave for people has been a motivation to finish this series.  The above is a collection of the seven objects represented in the whole series, snake skin/shed, small nation sack containing a man’s name written nine times, a dime and a single apple seed, a jar of tears, a bottle of dirt from a graveyard, a thorn, thistle and a piece of a bandanna. 

These bottles contain a vial of graveyard dust, a snake shed and ribs from a rattlesnake.

The ‘nation (domination) sack from the desire piece is reproduced here with the same same 9 elements, a 1930′s silver Mercury dime, an piece of parchment with a Man’s name written 9 times, a razor blade, a vial of honey, 7 apple seeds, a sprinkle of myrrh, a cinnamon stick, a snake rib, and a piece of a man’s bandanna.  The red top is the traditional red flannel used to make mojo hands.

 These last bottles contain the elements of the curse that relate to work, cursed earth in the form of a vial of graveyard dust, a thorn, a thistle and a vial of sweat.

The husband and wife photos is made from an old glass negative, the pin through the husband’s heart.  The botanical, zoological and collected objects in jars are adaptations from Genesis 3 and Proverbs 5, the concept of the ‘nation sack  from the Memphis Hoo Doo tradition; snake rib, a man’s name written 9 times on parchment, honey comb, apple seeds, 1934 dime, sweat on a bandanna, old Gillette razor, myrrh, cinnamon sticks.

Dorothea Lange’s picture of a mother and child, looking quite distressed, as they traveled Route 66 in hopes of better fortune, is set against Hans Holbein’s woodcut from the Dance of Death series showing death coming for a small child.  The bottles of tears and razors and pins and needles to represent pain.

This was the last of the 7 pieces to get finished. 

The picture is a 1930′s Carnival worker, biting the head of a snake.  The jars are all snake parts, a skull of a viper, a rattler’s tail, ribs from a python and a rattler, some snake sheds found in the desert and small bottle of graveyard dust.