Desert Mistletoe Menorah

This is a slab-built ceramic menorah decorated with impressions of desert mistletoe, Phoradendron californicum.

Screwbean Mesquite Menorah

They may look like maggots, but the decorations on this menorah are molded from the seedpods of the screwbean mesquite tree, Prosopis pubescens. 

 

Screwbean Mesquite:

Desert Mistletoe Candleholders

I received a commission to make a slab-built candle holder for larger candles which was not necessarily a menorah.  I made two of them.  They are both decorated with
Phoradendron californicum, desert mistletoe.

Mistletoe Candleholder with five holes:

Mistletoe Candleholder with six holes:

Burrobrush Menorah

This is the last of this series of menorahs, Menorah 28, the Burrobrush Menorah.  Singlewhorl Burrobrush, Ambrosia monogyra, is a shrub native to the southwestern U.S. and northern Mexico.  It smells like dill when it's dry.

Singlewhorl Burrobrush:

Desert Broom Menorah

This is Menorah 27, the Desert Broom Menorah.  Desert Broom, Baccharis sarothroides, is a common shrub of Sonoran Desert.

Desert Broom:

Purple Sage Menorah

This is a slab menorah with a pattern made with branches of Purple Sage (a.k.a. Texas Sage), Leucophyllum frutescens.

 

Purple Sage 

Desert Broom and Rosemary Molds

I've been working on menorahs made with impressions of plants.  These are molds from impressions of desert broom and rosemary.

Small Normal Menorah

This is the first in a series of "normal" menorahs -- that is, menorahs without any overly weird decorations which might make them unsaleable to the general public.  This one is 6.5 inches long, 5.5 inches tall, and 1.5 inches wide.  It has a pattern from the skeleton of a cactus (probably a prickly pear).

More Objects I'm Leaving Behind

Here are some more objects I'm leaving behind in the desert.

The first is a plaster Greek female head from the Columbus flea market in Columbus, NJ.
I left it in a random pack rat hole so that it looks like the rest of the body is buried too.










The second is the Cancer Bunny, former guardian of the compost. As I dumped it out, I'm impressed with the quality of the soil at the bottom of the pot and disappointed I didn't have anything to fertilize with it.

Clay Objects I'm Leaving in the Desert

I'm leaving my desert home of seven years. It was my choice to leave but now that it's actually time to go, I can't imagine anywhere else ever feeling like home.

Here are some of the clay objects I'm leaving in the desert to be found by whoever buys the property from the bank or to disintegrate from exposure to the harsh elements.

This was an early sculpture of a megasquid that didn't turn out right, so I left it in a hole in the desert and let it get buried by years of flooding.

This is currently all that is left showing above ground.

This is the giraluna that I hurled at the wall when my car was broken into in October 2006.

This is a wiwaxia with a broken spine that was moved outside. I was hoping it might be stolen by disgruntled neighborhood teenagers, but apparently they have better taste than I thought.

This is an imitation Chinese dragon statue that I bought at the Columbus flea market in New Jersey.
It's missing a foot so I sculpted a substitute foot out of red modeling clay and used my dog Sheena's toenails for realism.

Sheena in all her squirrelly glory. Throughout her life she was plagued with a variety of canine skin diseases. After a few years in Arizona, the red clay foot contracted some skin diseases of its own and had to be thrown out.

Vision Quest

Today I went on a vision quest in Saguaro National Park. I entered an altered state of consciousness and left two clay objects behind as offerings to the spirits of the desert plant life in exchange for their advice on various matters of great importance in my life.

I parked at the Valley View trail off of Hohokam Road, and walked along the road almost to where it reaches a dead end at Golden Gate Road. There, I crossed the boundary into the maze of arroyos and left the smaller clay object at the base of a towering saguaro.

I continued along the wash, eventually finding a certain monolithic stone outcropping. I left a second offering, my second attempt at a Cthulhu Madonna. I attempted to recreate the piece because one mouth tentacle broke off the original. The second one lacked the beatific expression of the original; furthermore, the headpiece became detached from the head and was incorrectly placed by whomever loaded the kiln.