Project One Assemblage
After doing my Artist Research on Joseph Cornell, I was excited to think up of three ideas.
The First Idea was to create a collage. I love to collage and have lots of books and magazines to cut from.
The Second Idea was to create an assemblage out of bones. a whole new species displayed in a bell jar.
The Third Idea was to create a witches cabinet filled with found objects.
All 3 ideas were very exciting to me. I decided not to do collage as I have done it before. Collage was a way back for me after my PTSD diagnosis in 2018. I have a ton of books and magazines at my disposal.
The skeleton construction in the bell jar would be fun, but not really generate that much dialogue. When I was in grade 6 I reassembled an entire chicken as a science project. I will save this idea for the future. All these piles of bones are not going anywhere.
I think the witches cabinet idea works best as I can relate it to my ancestors and female culture. It will provide a means for dialogue regarding women issues. I also gained huge inspiration from Joseph Cornell’s Apothecary series.
I did some ancestry research on my female lineage. It was amazing to go all the way back to the 1500’s
Ancestors
1/ Karen Lorraine Wayslow 1965-
2/ June Diane Welton 1939-
3/ Pearl Fanny McCartney 1916 – 1983
4/ Aurora Exerine Deslaurier 1895 – 1940
5/ Marie Pulchere Constantineau 1861 – 1911
6/ Emille M. Pardis 1834 – 1895
7/ Anne Marie Desforbes 1788 – 1864
8/ Marie Anne Presseal 1767 – 1834
9/ Marie Anne Brunet 1741 – 1795
10/ Marie Anne Thibault 1707 – 1778
11/ Marie Anna Badeau 1677 – 1712
12/ Marguertite chalifoux 1652 – 1705
13/ Jacquette (Fracdis) Archambault 1632 – 1700
14/ Franchise Toureau 1599-1663
15/ Marie- Martha Lenoir Dite Noel 1578-1640
16/ Angelique Guezet 1555-1580
17/ Jeanne Sevestre 1535-1595
18/ Marie Boulain 1500
Creation of The Witches Cabinet
Time to start gathering the objects I will need.
The first item on the agenda is an old 1970’s wooden spice rack. That dark brown wood color has now been updated with some fresh black paint. I like the look of the patina on the dirty glass, so am going to keep it. I feel it gives the piece ’age’.
I bought a bunch of these glass spice bottles at the thrift store. They had plastic stoppers on the tops that I cut off and removed. Now comes the fun part…filling them up! I am a bit of a packrat so have lots of interesting things to put into the jars. It is amazing how many jars and boxes I have filled up with long expired dead things. This spice rack is a good snapshot of my mind.
So what would one find in a witches cabinet? I don’t know what is in yours, but I will give you a peak of what is in mine…
So many useful items to be found in the cabinet!
I added the moon phase and some other witch marks to the cabinet. One the top of the cabinet sits a dried black chicken foot, cat skull, vintage key, and some other treasures.
I had fun creating this Witches Cabinet. It made me think about what sorts of items one would find within, over the ages. This cabinet harkens to the distant past. When women were tortured and killed for simple homeopathic remedies. How women were blamed for crop failure and farm animal deaths. How the devil woman was to blame for a mans lust.
What would a futuristic Witches Cabinet look like? would it be full of Electron Crystals and Microchips? What about your cabinet? what items of importance would you place there?
I enjoyed making this piece of artwork. It really added a sense of belonging in time for me. It provided me a sense of power to see all those names. My two sisters and I only had male children. we are the last females on this maternal tree. Therefore, The most powerful!
