Skulls are not just for Halloween

I don’t have step-by-step photos for this particular item. I collected the actual skull one day when I was out wandering through my grandpa’s cow pasture. There are two strong associations with that day; the first is memories of my grandpa, who spent so many of his retirement years with the ancestors of the cattle now roaming his range land. The second is, I was there on that particular day with my cousins who are now caring for the cattle. I could go more into detail about all that, but I don’t want to get too schmaltzy and irrational.

Once I had collected the skull, I brought it home and left it out in the sun for a while. You see sometimes I don’t know exactly what I’m going to do with a piece only that it attracts my attention and that I am going to do something.

When I had finally determined the course to be taken, I cleaned out the skull by vacuuming it out, washing it out, and using compressed air to blow it out. One can never be to cautious when working with carcass parts. When I finally determined it was clean enough to be housed in my home without creating incidences of infestation by flesh-eating creatures and/or vermin, I painted it with white paint. arguably, one could use a brush, but I opted for spray paint for more even coverage in the various nooks and crannies.

When it had dried, I penciled in the sunflowers; sort of Georgia O’Keefe-esque. Then I painted them on using several shades of each color to mimic some degree of depth. Were I true artist I would have incorporated light and shadow to a greater degree, but whereas it was experimental evolved into crafty, I walked away satisfied.