allison sommers art.

Print in the shop!

I have a print of Jumping Jack available in my etsy shop-- check them out!

Confession: I started a Tumblr.

Check it out!

 

A Brief Note: a Smattering of Inspiration for Potter's Field.

I've been reading and thinking a bit over the course of building the work for Potter's Field. Here are a few of the things that have been on my mind... click for larger.

   

 

   

 


From top: WWI-era British recruiting poster, cabinet card of heart from the Mütter collection, Civil War era gunshot reconstruction from the Mütter collection, "Skin Graft" by Otto Dix, "Widow II" by Käthe Kollwitz, "Wounded Man (Autumn 1916)" by Otto Dix, laughing coin-operated automoton at the Musee Mechanique San Francisco, WWI-era German poster, "Workers: Famine. Death is Approaching..." by Heinz Fuchs.

Potter's Field solo show at Thinkspace: Progress Shots.

Next January, I have a project room solo at Thinkspace with the most esteemed (and one of my very favorite artists) Esao Andrews. I've been hard at work over the past few months... here are a few shots of the pieces in progress. Click for larger.

                        

Jürgen the Dilettante Taxidermist.

Before I start: please know that I am an animal lover and vegetarian, and I don't delight in the cruelty to or death of any creature, period. (the roaches in my apartment excluded.) The mice that were provided for this class died at the factory farm where they were being bred as feeders, and were otherwise going to be thrown away. 

I was so delighted to take a taxidermy class this week at the Observatory Room taught by Sue Jeiven, an amateur anthropomorphic taxidermist, tattoo artist, and all-around hoot. The experience was really great-- it was surprising how little gore was involved-- it was no more gross than dressing a turkey, and the only gratuitous blood was mine when I nicked myself with the scalpel (SCALPEL = SHARP). If you're interested, this is roughly what we did, except with an air-dry clay maquette inside, rather than the mouse mummy. We used a lot of borax, actually, so it was very dry, not gooey-looking like that tutorial. Cutest part of mounting: there is a pipe cleaner inside his tail. :)

His tools are mostly little things that I grabbed from my wunderkammer, with the exception of his little mortuary/dissection kit, which I made from shrinky dinks and hedgehog spines.

   

I imagine Jürgen as a romantic and amateur naturalist, occasionally peeking out his study windows at the moor outside, spending nearly all his time fiddling with animals or chemicals, drawing detailed pictures of the flowers he finds and, very secretly, dabbling in a tiny bit of alchemy. ("It's old-fashioned, I know, but I do think those chaps were onto something.")

     

Under the break are two pics of J before he got all dressed up. No gore, but it is "real."

Friday in NYC: Spirit Animal Show!

Tomorrow is the opening of Spirit Animal, a show in which Reliquary is featured! I'll be there, so if you're in the area please come check it out!

Exhibition details:

Nov 4th, 7-10
White Rabbit’s White Box
145 East Houston St.
between Forsyth and Houston

 

Interview on Tangled Fingers!

I recently did an interview with Tangled Fingers and it's up now-- check it out! Thanks so much to Jes!