"Gris-Gris For The Itinerant Artist" (new art!)

"Gris-Gris For The Itinerant Artist" (c) 2011 A.M.H.Lockard

I have worked and worked on this piece.
It started with an anchovy tin I saved and stashed in the studio. It kept calling to me. Saying, work with me, make me into *something more*.
But an anchovy tin is small; I mean small. And I kept setting it aside, and it kept catching my eye.
Having finished one piece for my online class, I felt trying to get a second piece done, along with color washes, etc, was pushing it, but that danged little tin was there.....niggling at me. Thus, what you have here.
Small tin, lots of meaning, big name, big art.
Happy artist! ;-)

Texture abounds....

I added insult to injury by burning myself numerous times during the making of this little gem, and also caught a couple of the elements in it on fire.....I should not be allowed to OWN a heat gun of any sort. (and this was just with the embossing tool, not my commercial heat gun or torch....this is why DH insists I have a fire extinguisher in the studio...)

Crushed shell....the *gravel* of New Orleans.....

While small, it is rich with hidden meaning. 

Contents and wishes, offerings, gris-gris...

The third life of an old timer bell.....

I'm not sure I will write it all; there is a lot. But there is sentiment too, as the base is the bell section of an old timer my dad brought from the factory we worked at. It was broken, he fixed it, I used it for years before it gave up the ghost again and yet I saved it.
Now cannibalized for parts, it has another shot at a third life. And the gris-gris container has a place to stand. 

My trademark blue butterfly, with flame, representing inspiration and the soul.

Perfect.
Sometimes, the very small things speak volumes and the broken bits we save, in turn, save us.
I love this recycled art idea.
There is so much possible.......




Pax....