A Vessel of Meaning

What makes something special?

A few years ago on my blog I dove into what makes an object special. There are lots of things, but two I identified were framing and meaning.

For me, “framing” is how we use physical structures to signify a particular object as special. That may literally be a frame, or a pedestal, an alter, even just a gallery wall. These are things that allow the object to be seen as standing apart from the ordinary.

By “meaning” I am thinking of the non-physical sense we give an object. It is heavily reliant, but not completely, on language. And probably the less I say about that the better, as it is a huge topic in philosophy wherein some very sharp folks participate. Examples are almost any kind of label including a written description, title of an art piece, or an artist statement.

I’ve played with framing and meaning in a number of conceptual and physical art objects, but one idea I came back to was basically a pedestal that also held a label. One could place an object on the pedestal (taking it out of the ordinary world) and add related text to it (‘giving’ it a meaning) – signifying it a special.

Recently, I figured out that the electric test kiln my wife made, and had been gathering dust, worked! (Additionally, we are on a renewable energy plan with our provider.) I went about putting some of my ideas into an ceramic piece.

I wanted my piece to not compete with the object it holds. Keeping things simple, I hand made the piece and do a sort of “primitive” firing – I bring the clay up to temperature, take it out of the kiln and smother in it combustible (wood chips) to get a nice dark surface. I think this highlights the decoration as well as the marks from it being hand made.

In the end I came up with a wall reliquary that incorporates some of my ideas of a vessel of meaning.

Overall, the piece places the object in the center of the meeting of the horizontal and vertical. The axis both point to the object and extend it’s significance beyond the piece.

I’ve increase the complexity of the piece towards the center, helping draw the eye and increase the excitement/energy toward the object on display. The piece does this with layers as well as stamps within stamps. The roof overhangs the base so as to protect the object.

To accomplish the text component, I include a slot(s) to hold a paper label.

Above the roof is a small vessel with stopper. That allows for another object, small and hidden, to be involved. For those who know, it would interact with the meaning of the visible special object. For example, the visible object could be shell from a favorite beach, and the vessel holding some ash from a particular campfire that was had there. The shelf could show a bead from a necklace and the hidden vessel contain a cloth infused with perfume. One might also contrast a visible piece of candy with a small piece of dog poo tucked away in the vessel.

Other features include a hole below the shelf/base to hold items below the reliquary. Giving another option for a label or imagery, perhaps a decoration such as a tassel. There is also a hole in the base to hold an optional armature to better display some objects.

This wall reliquary is meant to hold other people’s special objects. Others are to furnish an object, label and perhaps something hidden. And those things can change over the course of time. That makes it a bit of a challenge when displaying it in a gallery. How do I show the reliquary has a special meaning? Do I include an example object and label that people may think is permanent? A short description may help alongside the piece may provide meaning.

One of these will be at the Corvallis Art Center‘s fundraiser “8×8 Art Show – Square Art for Sale”.

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Heading Out

Stopping to smell the roses during one of my evening runs, or in this case, the dust kicked up from a tractor working the fields. Still, it is good to appreciate the moment.

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Solarcan Results

About 6 months ago I put up a pinhole camera outside that was constantly gathering light. After the solstice, I took it down, processed the image, and here it is –

What you are seeing are streaks of the sun as it goes across the sky. As the season progresses from Winter to Summer, the sun goes higher in the image. Silhouetted are trees in our yard and other foliage. The streaks themselves are also broken up by cloud cover. I was able to corrolate the streaks with a weather service’s cloud cover chart.

This was a fun, low-maintenance, project. I am dissapointed the upper image got cut off, but I am not sure there was room. Perhaps it is due to our latitude where the sun has a wide range in the seasons. I was surprised that I think I can see the individual streaks that I assume are days. It was cool to see it match up to the historical weather record.

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Eclipse 2024

Nothing special, but this was about the max occlusion from our house. We were lucky to see something through the clouds.

Through a telescope with a solar filter, we could see several sunspots. The smaller one on the upper right (region 3633 at 120MH) is about the size of the Earth (170 MH), the speck towards the center is quite a bit larger (region 3628 260 MH).

The video was with the telescope and into my cell phone, not really fancy astrophotography, but still kinda cool to me. I liked seeing the clouds go by, so I thought I’d share.

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Birdie Cam II

Another season, another bird house.

After last year’s first try with a camera in a bird house, here’s the next iteration.

I kept the same camera, but lengthened the house. This gives more entry-to-floor depth and is inline with what’s recommended for chickadees. This also allowed me to add maybe 3″ of wood shavings. The birds apparently like being able to remove shavings to get the depth they prefer. Further, there is more height to the camera. Last year I noticed birds kept looking up at the camera, so I hope this gives them a bit more breathing room.

Other changes are a roof that overhangs all four sides, as I saw water leaking in the backside last year. There is a bracket allowing it to be installed on a “T” stake.

Umbrella strapped to the side of a birdhouse.

I moved the location to be more in the shade, so we won’t need to set up an umbrella on hot days!

I understand chickadees nest around mid-March in our area and while I had installed the house on the stake, I had not plugged in the camera. The other day, I noticed birds flirting around the opening, so I finished up the job. The next day the camera showed a customer checking out the digs.

No one has moved in yet, but we’ve seen a few beaks peeking in the entry and a few birds have come inside to check things out!

3/19/2024 Update

Over the weekend, checkadees began to visit the box several times an hour in the morning. They’ve been removing the wood shavings and dropping several feet away from the box. It looks to be about 1.5″ – 2″ of material has been removed so far.

3/26/2024 Update

We’ve noticed the chickadees began putting moss in the nest the other day. They’ve also pecked a bit at the interior. Last year there was quite a bit of moss, and then a layer of feathers. I think the’ve got more moss to go.

3/31/2024

When we checked today, it appears that one bird is now more or less staying in the nest.

4/16/2024

We might have an egg or more. One bird is in the nest pretty much all the time. When they leave, they may be covering something. We’ll see if we can get a picture.

4/17/2024

Yup, we have not just one egg but 4! The bird was definetly covering up earlier, but it was warmer today, so maybe the felt okay with leaving them uncovered.

4/19/2024

And then there were eight!

5/4/2024

Some birdies have hatched!


5/6/2024

Helping. While one bird has been on the nest much of the time, we noticed another coming in to help out. Perhaps feeding? These black and white images are mostly when the bird house is in the shade or dark. The camera has an infrared light that can be turned on. The birds do not seem to notice.

5/15/2024

The chick are feathered out and looking like chickadees.

5/21/2024

Wow have they grown, and one has ventured up the grooves to the entrance/exit. It probably won’t be long before the leave. We’ll keep an eye out.

5/24/2024

And just like that, one by one, yesterday they left the nest. From the seven eggs, four birds left the nest.

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