I have to admit that I didn't know the work of Aggie Zed before Ken Wilson sent me a photo, but now I'm hooked.
Dividing her working life between sculpture, painting and drawing, Aggie Zed describes her drawings and paintings as being "informed by a lifelong celebration of the beauty and strangeness of dreams, posed against the absurdity and poignancy of supposedly rational human activity." Playful yet vaguely unsettling, her work often includes animals as either observers or bewildered participants in some strange human pastime.
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| Oh grow up by Aggie Zed Pastel, ink and acrylic on paper Source: aggiezed.com |
Her sculpture similarly toys with reality, with human and animal figures that are vaguely "off". Humans bear the heads of animals, or have animals perched on their heads. Monochromatic men hold brightly coloured hand puppets. Animals mill about in groups.
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| Boxman with Elephant by Aggie Zed Ceramic Source: aggiezed.com |
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| Puppetman-Horse by Aggie Zed Ceramic Source: aggiezed.com |
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| Elephants by Aggie Zed Ceramic Source: aggiezed.com |
What first caught Ken's eye, however, was one of Aggie Zed's "scrap floats". Made of various metal parts, wire, paint, and ceramics, these intriguing creations feature humans and/or animals deconstructed, reconfigured, floating, pinned to the ground, and integral to complicated machines that would give Heath Robinson a run for his money.
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| Brainchild by Aggie Zed Ceramic and mixed metal Source: aggiezed.com |
Because I love anything that looks mechanical, I gravitated to the scrap floats right away. Intended, as Aggie Zed says, "as entries in a parade of the future," they are both amusing and disturbing, while also quite beautiful.
To see more of Aggie Zed's work, visit her website here.
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| Another Heaven by Aggie Zed Ceramic and mixed metal Source: aggiezed.com |
Elephant Lore of the Day
For some reason, elephants have been wildly anthropomorphized throughout history. They've been given human emotions, have been dressed up in human clothes, and have been made to carry out human activities.I'm not a big fan of anthropomorphizing live animals. However, if an elephant is allowed to keep its dignity in a pretend tintype like the one below, perhaps it serves as a reminder that animals are not overgrown clowns, and that we may not be so different after all.
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| Hortence J. Pacadorf From the Grand Ole Bestiary Source: Etsy |
To Support Elephant Welfare
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