Years ago Trudy shouted enthusiastically, while looking at my sample pieces during lunch at Lambretta's; "Everybody loves boucle!" So I bought fine boucle yearns, and wove with them, but none of the galleries wanted them, so I put them in exhibitions, but nobody bought them. So they sat on my stash room floor for several years. I might have sold some, or thrown them in charity bins, because I have one big one and one small one left. But the moths loved the big one; it has three holes in it now.
Being the "artist" that I am, I thought to embellish the large piece based on the idea that only moths loved this one. So I Googled moths, but the larvae, who are the real culprits, gave me the heebie jeebies and the Googling ended in 20 seconds.
I was thinking of what moths/larvae like to eat, (wool!!!), what they congregate around, (not flowers; light bulbs??), and, ahem, the sex life of moths which produces larvae. Yuck, yuck, yuck; the life of an "artist"? I wanted to call the piece "Eat Me!", but Kath thought that's in such poor taste, even for me, so I'm thinking "Eat My Shawl!" I was hoping to embellish it at home using Japanese material, except I still don't know what motif I'm going to use. The End.
PS: In all my life I've read perhaps a dozen or two National Geographic articles, all on ancient civilizations, but I do remember pictures, and the most memorable series was the moths in May 2002 issue. They look heaps better than larvae, but will they look like butterflies when embroidered/beaded/felted on to the shawl? That's overly simplistic, anyway. This requires more artist-ly thinking. The pics still make my skin itch, though...
6 comments:
i haven't had an infestation of the moth yet, hoping my obsessiveness about living in air conditioning will prevent it. But I have heard of moth-proofing your wool. I don't know how it is done though. I could find out. google is my friend. as are you.
Great concept. I love moths as a motif, but share your gross-out over blown up photographs of them. When I was in school they read us a fatuous inspirational essay every day. One featured the author remembering how, as a teenager, he convinced the little boy he was babysitting not to kill moths by having him look at one up close and see that it was furry. "Look, it's a flying teddy-bear!" he told the boy. And I privately thought nothing could be further from a flying teddybear than a moth, and that the idea flying teddybears bumbling around the porchlights was somehow even more of a creep-out.
Dana, the room should be good now - and I have nothing sitting on the floor. That's this side of the big clean up.
Trapunto, restless flying teddy bears appear almost as bad as the flying monkeys!!! Shivvvver!
Tranputo, lovely story, though. I guess. In some ways. My sister in law will like it; she was taught not even to kill flies and spiders; very Zen. Now Brother gently picks up spiders and throws them out the window, and good for him. Now I do that, too, but I can't help being creeped out at the same time.
I adore moths, so does our Annie-cat, I like to look at them but she eats them.
I guess I'm lucky that clothes moths are rare in NW England. I can't bear the thought of finding precious things full of holes. Your artwork ideas bring images from Hitchcock films to mind.
Dorothy, "The Birds", I know!!! In reality, though, I bet it's just a tiny larva or two! Still, Monsters!!!
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