Cradle Project

The Abandoned Nest

The pearls are the abondoned orphans; a symbol of their purity and their souls Fabric scraps woven into the wire

There is nothing like a deadline to motivate anyone.

Title of this piece is "The Abandoned Nest". Materials used are chicken wire, pearls, fabric scraps and a maile vine (which is a vine that grows in the mountains of Hawaii that is picked and made into very special occasion leis; this one was sent to me from my sister in Hilo honoring completion of a second bachelor's degree last May). The fabric scraps were from my aunt and my mother's collection from clothing they had made for my cousins and my siblings and myself. These scraps have been around for a good forty to fifty years.

Anyway, back to my point about deadlines. This was my submission for the Cradle Project (click on the link to find out more about this incredible and worthy project) which I had known about a year ago and I had decided then that I wanted to submit something. Ideas abound until the time comes to actually start working on it. I finally got around to forming the wire structure last fall and rusticating it. Then, I got so attached to the rust, that I couldn't get myself to weave something through the wire. Various materials were experimented with and nothing looked right. There have been many rolling deadlines for the call for art for the Cradle Project, and at last March 1st was nearing which was the deadline for submission if you wanted your work to appear in the companion publication for the exhibit.

I finished it on Feb. 29 and barely had time to photograph it. The images aren't the best as I was outside and it was a wee bit breezy.

Dropping it off at the warehouse was amazing; it was buzzing with activity and an army of efficient volunteers. Cradle submssions were everywhere from local artists, artists arcoss the country and around the world. The exhibition will be here in Albuquerque on June 7th and there will be an on-line auction throughout the month of June. Seeing everyone else's interpretations of cradles is enough to put anyone over the edge with excitement.

If you live in town or within driving distance, I urge you to mark your calendar for the exhibition. Allegedly, there should be 1,000 cradles on exhibit and for sale on the on-line auction. I believe the venue will be three floors in a bank building downtown (instead of the abandoned warehouse cited on the website; it got sold to the movie studios).

Natalie, the creator and vision behind all of this, has done a tremendous job on conceptualizing it and rounding up the most amazing core of volunteers. It is an event NOT to be missed! If you can't see it in person, make sure you check out the on-line auction in June.