A friend recently asked if I could make a “cat sarcophagus” for her daughter’s upcoming eighth birthday party. Along with the proposal she included a snapshot of a “cat mummy” from London. Coincidentally, a few months prior, National Geographic had a cover issue dedicated to pet mummies of ancient Egypt, which my family had loved. So plenty of fodder. I took up the task and wanted to document the process and result to share.

Step One
Create the form. Since the sarcophagus was going to be used to store candy, I knew it needed two halves. I drew and cut one out of a large cardboard box, and essentially copied it for the second half. In the center, cut out a square somewhat larger than a shoebox size, leaving enough room on the edges to retain structural integrity.

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Working between my daughter and an art project for the the Green Mountain Film Festival I caught this lovely shot of sunlight on chalk - with plaster of paris all over my hands.

One of the fun pieces of work for the last couple of years is participating in the Green Mountain Film Festival - as an Operations Committee Member, a film viewer and as a participating artist. This year, working with two friends/colleagues who are both gifted - one is a clothing maker/costume designer and the other a wood worker and set designer - we are creating a large window installation for the festival that is a play on one of the early scenes from, “The Seventh Seal.”

In our scene adaptation, Death will play the festival’s mascot this year - a nubian goat that graces our poster, program and other advertisements - in a game of chess. Supposedly for the unlucky chevre’s soul, unless he proves the trickier master.

At the moment, my task is to create a likeness of the goat. Have developed a wireframe form that I sheathed in screen, and am now applying a layer of impressively-fast-drying plaster gauze. Once this is completed, I will tear up about a dozen pages of New York Times movie review add into strips which I’ll curl and apply as goaty tufts of fur. Its really fun!

Mine is the bottom right. The “cloud” text says,

Children of the earth
moulders of clay, movers of rock.

In making the tile, I was struck by how well the lighting worked between the girl and the cloudy background I’d painted. That was a pleasing result. The concept continues my interest in the representation of “fundamental” materials: stone, mud and clay, metal, wood, fibers, etc. Materials as archetypes of both process and meaning.