Triptych Blue House
210 x 80 x 37 cm
November 2009
2004 Antelope Valley. An old blue goat shed stood in the middle of a big field, I remember that particular blue, when the sun just hit it right, it glowed on the golden field. Like lapses lazuli in a gold setting. 2009 the shed had collapsed, I drove out with the old truck named Mitch, and picked up some pieces. I built a tall house with two barns from it.
One day one of the CalTrans man came in the studio. They park their big scraper here on the fire break, while we chatted he asked what the heck this big building is, he wondered about for years and years. I invited him in. He saw this triptych, he remembered that goat shed with that particular blue !
"And you brought pieces of that shed home and made this out of it"! he said with surprise and glowing eyes. When he retired I gave him a photo of the triptych.
The Triptych is made of three drawers from an old chest I found somewhere in the Antelope Valley.
On the left there is an Owl with a coyote Mohawk pushing the building forward… twisting, tilting. The little cave swallow whispers something, while clinging on to his fur.
The Owl’s hand is a paw of a raccoon, a long time left over Coyote dinner? Quite a find.
In the winter I see traces of the raccoon, in the snow; friendly imprints of little hands and feet.
Once, one raccoon (Fat Fred) showed up one night in the neighbor’s kitchen, hopping in through the cat door, opening a jar of peanut butter, stealing chocolate out of a handbag and eating all the cat food.
The center element is the tall house; it is being raided by this creature.
No, that fish head wasn’t found here. Heavily lacquered it is. Its claws came from a decayed little crow I found in the park in Boxtel, Holland. It had just started to rain when I saw it. My father died just a few days before. Even than and there things come to me. My mother is already used to the fact that I bring home stuff like that.
In the lower room the little Dragonfly singer hovers, holding up a tiny piece of an old exploded balloon. She keeps singing.
In the next part of the building the big guy crept in. He is staring into this nest, made by an oriole. The oriole used a lot of blue tarp material. I think it is from the roof of the old tower building. We tried to protect the garage with placing tarp on the roof once but there is no stopping to its slow decay. Unruly fishing line spills out from the nest, flowing underneath the up rooted floor. The armored bird has old wings with sharpened tips. His head is made of a rabbit skull with the upper bill made of a mouse skull.
Years later the old garage has been renovated and became the Museum in the tower building.
A little bird is perched underneath, watching…
There are a few Dragonflies whizzing around, each has a tiny little resister at the back of their heads. The color code tells it has 2000 ohms, +/-5% resistance value. Is resistance futile?
All the while the boat is carrying off the flame-seed.
I had to do all this welding, I am not so good at it… took me while. But here it is: the triptych:
“Tilted Blue House”, a ‘tour de force’.
