Of trees and their roots as symbols of life and death...

Mourning tree in Japanese vase

GLUT-2011/12 mixed media

                                     Glut   Victorian Drawing Room Rossendale Museum  photographer Neil Warburton 2012


In September 2011a storage box full of plastic toy animals was placed in my studio. The box of toys was found in a skip and the finder thought I'd make good use of them as I often include toys in my work.....he wasn't wrong.
I'm never sure, when I start a piece of work, how it will turn out, if at all, each piece is a journey.

I had a pot of matt black blackboard paint in my studio and began painting the plastic animals. It took several months as each one required 2-3 coats of paint. I could have sprayed them and completed the job more quickly but I chose to hand paint each one in order to enjoy their specific qualities and to treat these mass produced objects  as precious items. I had no idea what I was going to do with the animals once they were painted I just enjoyed the process hoping that an idea would turn up.

A friend invited me to go to a local auction where I bought a couple of large Victorian glass domes. They sat in my studio for several months whilst I continued painting the animals until one day I decided to fill one of the domes with the animals and thus Glut was made.
I chose the title Glut, a word defined as 'an excessively abundant supply of something', as it plays upon the Victorians excessive killing of birds and animals for use in decorative vitrines for the home and our 21st century fashion for excessive abuse of natural resources to to make plastic toy animals that end up in landfill.
Rossendale Museum kindly allowed me to photograph Glut in their Victorian Drawing Room.
GLUT