Now I Got Worry (StressMonkey)
⊛ Now I Got Worry (Stressmonkey)
⊛ cut paper / wood
⊛ 8.9 x 11.9 in • 200 x 300 mm
During High School I went through a strange 6-month patch where my whole world seemed to revolve around turtles. Not real live turtles. The theme of turtles. A friend tried to nickname me "Turtle" (it didn't take). After a car accident, a vet I worked with concocted this amazing story about how a turtle had been the cause. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles were huge. The list goes on. In fact, the list got so long that I decided it could not be coincidence. The universe was trying to give me a message, and that message was "TURTLE". I still have no idea what it all means.
Nowadays, turtles have taken a backseat to monkeys. Monkeys are great. They share so many behaviors with us "higher" primates, it's easy to see ourselves in them. And they worry. Or at least seem to. That's where "StressMonkey" comes from. It's my nickname for anyone who thrives on stress. There're alot of us around.
I've started playing around with the idea of the cut paper art in three-dimensions. Not so much in the sense of introducing space between layers into the work. I know a number of folks who do beautiful work that way. More along the lines of continuing the artwork past the border of the image, onto the sides and back. Right now, it's pretty simple. But given time and the right materials (and the funds to buy said materials), I'm starting to have interesting ideas.
I was actually surprised to see how long it's been since I've done a monkey piece. Over a year, when I made Gleek here (am I the only one who remembers the Superfriends cartoon?) The first was Social Grooming.