Hatta Column

I'm out of new work again, but not for long. From the archives, this is part of a series of column sculptures based on Lewis Carroll characters. This is the Hatter. I'm not sure why the nose looks like the Froot Loops mascot's bill.

Joint of Mutton with Basil

Cat Column with Tongue and Cat Column Without

Caterpillar Column

I'm out of new work again, but this is part of the series of column-like sculptures of Lewis Carroll characters. This was meant to be the Caterpillar, but could just as easily represent the Jabberwock.

Mouse Column

I'm waiting for new work to get fired. By that I mean for the clay objects to get bisque fired and glaze fired, not for me to get fired. I don't have any opportunities for getting fired at the moment.

These are from a series of column sculptures inspired by Lewis Carroll characters. This is the Mouse with a Sad Tale that Alice meets after falling into the pool of tears, not to be confused with the dormouse, the March Hare, the White Rabbit, or the guinea pigs. Sad Tail not pictured.

"A mouse - of a mouse - to a mouse - a mouse - O mouse!"




I had a mouse infestation at my house. At one point I considered attempting to evoke the Essential Mouse Deity to bargain with it, but it didn't work and the situation devolved into guerrilla warfare. I can imagine them holding a revolutionary victory party after I moved out.
I never actually attempted the evocation because I didn't think the egregore would be helpful even if it the operation was successful. I did get as far as designing the Mouse Pantacle and a mantra using the syllables from Alice's declension of the noun mouse:

Ovamaus Tuamaus Emaus Omaus

Crone Alice and Pig Baby

Another old sculpture saved from oblivion only because I like its face. It's holding a pig baby like Alice in the "Pig and Pepper" chapter.

"By the by, what became of the baby?"
"It turned into a pig."
"I thought it would."
"Did you say pig or fig?"
"I said pig."

Joint of Mutton

This is another Lewis Carroll-themed sculpture depicting a character from the second Alice book that rarely gets the recognition it deserves in popular movies. The Tweedles made it into both Disney adaptations and the talking flowers at least made it into the 1951 cartoon, but the Joint of Mutton is invariably snubbed. The second book is modeled on a game of chess and after being insulted and confused by the two chess queens on her journey across the board, Alice becomes a queen herself when she makes it to the other side. She is given a banquet with the other queens, at which each course of the meal gets up and is introduced to Alice. Unfortunately, Alice is informed by her colleagues that eating food once one has been introduced to it is bad manners and each course is taken away before it can be eaten. Alice eventually uses her new queenly authority to demand that the food be brought back, but this only causes a bizarre explosion of chaos and Alice's hasty exit from her dreamworld.

Here is my first version of the Joint of Mutton, bowing politely so as not to be eaten. Part of its foot was blown off in the kiln so it doesn't stand very well. I made another one, but I gave it away as a gift and forgot to take a picture.

Protoshroom

This is the first of my recent shrooms. It was inspired by the killer mushrooms in American McGee's Alice, which lie dormant until you approach them, and then suck you into their toothy maws, chew you up, and shoot you out the top, all the while spewing poisonous spores.

I had a rounder, firmer mushroom cap in mind, but the clay was too soft and the shape I cut out was too unstable so it collapsed into a pancake-like mass.

Fish Column and Fish Head

This is another column sculpture based on a Lewis Carroll character, the Fish Footman from the first Alice book.

and here is a fish head without the column

The Cancer Bunny

To continue with the Lewis Carroll theme of the Cheshire Cat, I made a White Rabbit Column. This is the second version.

The first version lost an ear somewhere in the bisquing/glazing process and was recruited to act as a scarecrow/guardian of my compost pit. Composting doesn't work well in the desert. Nothing rots except during the rainy season. Even then, there are no earthworms and I have to rely on fly larva as decomposers. During the rest of the year, my dog Leona eats the tomatoes, the rabbits and packrats eat the greens, and whatever is left over dries out and remains for a long time. Last summer, the implements used to stir the compost kept disappearing. First I lost a small shovel, and then the end of a broken clay pipe. I suspected feral desert children, so I wrote threatening messages on the one-eared white rabbit column reject (such as "Hi, I'm the Cancer Bunny! Go ahead and steal me, but I'm going to bring cancerous pestilence to you and your whole family if you do!") and buried it in the vegetable muck. It has remained in the compost pit ever since. Thank the gods for black magick.

The Duchess

The character of the Duchess is often left out of film versions of Alice.

Perhaps the filmmakers are afraid of confusing the viewer with another unstable, violent, confusing female authority figure. Perhaps it is the demented songs that seem to promote child abuse (although who can resist joining in with the chorus of "Wow! wow! wow!"?)

Speak roughly to your little boy,
And beat him when he sneezes;
He only does it to annoy,
Because he knows it teases.

Wow! wow! wow!

One of John Tenniel's original illustrations of the Duchess from Alice's Adventures in Wonderland

The Duchess was the first boss in American McGee's Alice PC game. If she catches up with you, she gnaws on your head in a gruesome way. When she is defeated, she sneezes her own head off.