My latest assemblage for your viewing entertainment...
THE PEAR NIBBLER
The inspiration for this piece was from an old 1893 “mug shot”, featuring a notorious, hardened criminal, 23 month old François Bertillon, who was caught nibbling all the pears from a basket.
While this may look like a girl, little boys used to have long hair and were kept in dresses while they were young back in the 1800’s. The dress part was for convenience before they were potty trained, the hair was considered youthful and baby cute.
This mug shot is adorable, but it is also remarkable as a historical artifact: it is one of those rare objects that documents a part of history while also giving us a glimpse into the life and personality of its creator, the father of young François, Alphonse Bertillon. Alphonse was a French police officer and biometrics researcher who was responsible for standardizing the modern mug shot. (Fun fact: the profile shot was included because Bertillon thought our ear shape might become a unique identifier, in the days before fingerprinting).
Capturing a lighthearted moment in his life and relationship with his son, this photograph brings Bertillon to life as a real man and a father. One can’t help but look at this photograph and imagine the exchange between naughty son and bemused father, perhaps as he worked on inventing mug shots in his workshop one afternoon.
Mug shots have become one of the most iconic, recognizable photographic forms in the 20th century; this image is special because it infuses this relic of visual culture with the personal history of its inventor.
I have embellished the story a bit, creating the WANTED/REWARD picture frame, and the nibbled pears, with teeth added, and an expression from one of the pears that reads “It wasn’t me.” There is an old 1800’s baby shoe that may have been the type that François would have worn in his attempted get away.
This mug shot is adorable, but it is also remarkable as a historical artifact: it is one of those rare objects that documents a part of history while
also giving us a glimpse into the life and personality of its creator, the father of young François, Alphonse Bertillon. Alphonse was a French police officer and biometrics researcher who was responsible for standardizing the modern mug shot. (Fun fact: the profile shot was included because Bertillon thought our ear shape might become a unique identifier, in the days before fingerprinting).
Capturing a lighthearted moment in his life and relationship with his son, this photograph brings Bertillon to life as a real man and a father. One can’t help but look at this photograph and imagine the exchange between naughty son and bemused father, perhaps as he worked on inventing mug shots in his workshop one afternoon.
Mug shots have become one of the most iconic, recognizable photographic forms in the 20th century; this image is special because it infuses this relic of visual culture with the personal history of its inventor.
I have embellished the story a bit, creating the WANTED/REWARD picture frame, and the nibbled pears, with teeth added, and an expression from one of the pears that reads “It wasn’t me.” There is an old 1800’s baby shoe that may have been the type that François would have worn in his attempted get away.
Earlier this year, in the summer, I made my first memory jug with treasures found from my Dad's desk drawers. I have now become a memory jug addict! 
As a member of Gallery 223, in Lake Geneva, we were supporting the arts by having some of the members art displayed at the Lake Geneva Theatre for a performance by the Lake Geneva Actors Guild, An Evening With Edgar Allan Poe, on October 19th.
I had played around with some of the elements in this assemblage for the last few months, not really knowing where I was going with it, I had the shelf mushroom, that looked like a pair of lungs, found an odd shaped piece of black walnut, that looked to me like a human heart, and some deer antlers that could be ribs. And I had just recently found a glass eye at a junk shop upnorth....
When this challenge came about, to create a piece to fit the performances, I knew these were what I wanted to use!
I added a metal skeleton hand coming out of the drawer of the table this sat on, and a metronome below it, that would beat slowly, like the sound of a heart beating.... and tah dah! An assemblage was born... The Tell Tale Heart!
“...there came to my ears a low, dull, quick sound, such as a watch makes when enveloped in cotton. I knew that sound well. It was the beating of the old man's heart…”
Thank you to the Fontana Library for having my assemblage art featured during the month of October 2017.
"To everything there is a season..."... and one very long season, that changed my life in many ways, is now changing.. making sense (cents) of things could be the title to this assemblage of treasures I put together to explain this transition.
This mug shot is adorable, but it is also remarkable as a historical artifact: it is one of those rare objects that documents a part of history while also giving us a glimpse into the life and personality of its creator, the father of young François, Alphonse Bertillon. Alphonse was a French police officer and biometrics researcher who was responsible for standardizing the modern mug shot. (Fun fact: the profile shot was included because Bertillon thought our ear shape might become a unique identifier, in the days before fingerprinting).
Mug shots have become one of the most iconic, recognizable photographic forms in the 20th century; this image is special because it infuses this relic of visual culture with the personal history of its inventor.
This mug shot is adorable, but it is also remarkable as a historical artifact: it is one of those rare objects that documents a part of history while 
