At the end of 2008 and beginning of 2009 I decided to get my art works appraised. Taking pictures and really looking at things sparked my interest in them again. Tracy Hicks is the artist who devised this installation of specimen jars with frog molds in them. These jars fascinated me when I first saw them at an art gallery and knew that I needed to have it in one window in my house which faces East and gets the morning sun. As the sun rises the glow from the colors in the jars fill the wall with rainbows.The larger jars are laboratory specimen jars and some are filled with oil, some are filled with colored resin and some have both along with whatever Tracy put in the jars. A few have pieces of glass, colored resin and oil.
Some have spiders and dragonflies, molds of extinct frogs, jars and other found things. The small jars inside the large jars are from the Smithsonian Institute and originally had other specimens in them years ago. The jars were given to Tracy and he envisioned them in this way.I had a ceramic ewer made by artist Peter Beasecker that had gotten broken when a picture fell on it. Tracy wanted a few shards and we managed to get the top in one piece. He made a jar with the top of the ewer in it for me in exchange for the shards which he then put into other jars I imagine. Peter is a friend of Tracy's and he wanted a momento.
This window has been brought to life with all the colors of the rainbow reflecting on the wall and as the sun moves around the colors intensify. This is one of my favorite pieces in my collection.
5 comments:
I LOVE these! I was always intrigued by this! You have the most interesting items in your home. The colors are so beautiful, I would love something like this in my house one day.
Thank you, Margaret! I hope to have more items on the blog in the near future that have a little story to them. Either where I bought them or how the item was made and the artist. I am really enjoying really looking at the things I have all over again.
I'm so glad you posted these! It's so unusual and amazing. I do have to wonder though if the jars are somehow anchored... good thing you don't live in an earthquake prone area!
No the jars aren't anchored but they are heavy and bottom weighted and they don't move unless someone slams the door that's right next to it! I spend a lot of time yelling "Don't slam the door" when the grand kids are over. About three or four times a year I have to take them down, cleans the window and the glass shelves and dust the jars.
So nice to see Tracy's work on your blogsite. Love his work - Visit mysite sometime - http://myfavoriteart.blogspot.com/
Rodney
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