I asked my Facebook followers for help naming this fellow, and received many great suggestions..most of which will be saved for future roosters! The winner for this particular one though is solely based on the fact that it came with a great story! Read on….
“We used to raise chickens, as did my Grandma. As a kid I remember wwatching her help my mom butcher many roosters & I remember being slightly horrified at watching my Grandma sit & wring the necks of all the roosters…(although, we weren’t too sad to see one particularly mean rooster go!). Her name was Eldred, which was actually a male name, meaning “Wise Advisor” (maybe derived from “Elder”?). Grandma Eldred was a feisty, old bird & she was given her last rights twice, but bounced back & shocked her nurses & doctors each time. Grandma passed away this May, just over a month shy of turning 94. What do you think? I think he looks like an “Eldred”.
Thank you, Dari, Eldred it is, and a tribute paid to your grandma!
To make Eldred, the background was prepared with a rather difficult and time consuming process of piecing and weaving National Geographic magazine pages and then treating with Citra Solv. The rooster was pieced and painted separately so that I could run it through the sewing machine adding all kinds of crazy stitches to the feathers made from Citra Solv papers, and batik fabrics. Once the rooster and canvas were joined, I did lots of fun drippy stuff to give a kind of aged look to the piece. Finally I added painted branches, and paper and paint leaves.
Eldred is a nice big 24 x 30 thick canvas and is currently available at Tessera Fine Art Gallery for $295. Call (316) 262-2435 if interested.
Leave a Reply