#heatherwattsart

This "Altered Jesus" is part of my afterlife series "You Drift Away Closer and Closer: Fieldnotes from the Modern Afterlife." ⁠⠀ ⁠⠀ This is the Jesus of secular life, descended from the shining, bearded, white-robed and white-skinned mythical being I believed in as a kid. ⁠⠀ ⁠⠀ He's a beautiful ghost now, a post-human Jesus, possessing strange storybook powers and an ancient connection to the great mystery. In this incarnation, he welcomes all faiths to an afterlife where heaven and hell, death and life fold in on each other in a perfect swirling circle of eternity.⁠⠀ ⁠⠀ ****⁠⠀ ⁠⠀ My email list is reincarnating this fall. DM me or hit the link in my profile to join.⠀ ⁠⠀ ****⁠⠀ ⁠⠀ ⁠#heatherwatts #heatherwattsart⁠ #vancouverart #vancouverartist #canadianart #canadianartist ⁠#contemporaryartist #emergingartist #artcollectorsofig #selftaughtartist #selftaughtart #cbcarts #surrealism #surrealart #contemporaryart ⁠#mixedmedia #mixedmediaart #mixedmediaartist ⁠#smallart #delicateart #intricateart #detailedart #mementomori #afterlifeartwork #afterlife #deathart #jesusart #alteredjesus #christianityart (at Vancouver, British Columbia) https://www.instagram.com/p/B1KzWLaheku/?igshid=rhodspcp6dmn

The difficulty of working with found materials like these is that they're unique. You have to be thoughtful about how you use them. I had plans for both of these figures to be included in larger pieces in my afterlife series, but they are such perfect partners, I struggle with the idea of separating them. ⠀ ⠀ I particularly love how the irregular shape of the white parasol matches the dark base on which the other figure sits. This is the kind of repetition or relation that compels me to pull certain objects or images together when I'm making art. It is how disparate things become cohesive for me, a big part of how art is made. ⠀ ⠀ The assemblages shown are wood, bone, ceramic, cloves and a very old pocket bible. Will they greet the afterlife eternally together or be separated from each other forever?⠀ ⠀ ⠀ ⠀ #heatherwatts #heatherwattsart #vancouverart #vancouverartist #canadianart #canadianartist⠀ #contemporaryartist #emergingartist #artcollectorsofig #selftaughtartist #selftaughtart #cbcarts #surrealism #surrealart #contemporaryart #mixedmedia #mixedmediaart #mixedmediaartist #smallart #delicateart #intricateart #detailedart #mementomori #afterlifeartwork #afterlife #deathart #sculpture #canadiansculpture #sculptureart #blackandwhiteart (at Vancouver, British Columbia)

Yay! Another small piece finished in my afterlife series, reworked form an earlier "finished" piece (it really is finished now, I swear!) Yellow seems to be one of my favorite colors in this series, particularly pale yellow. ⠀ I also have a more subtle finished drawing of the same figure--I'll have to post a shot of them together soon. ⠀

There's such an ephemeral quality to paper, it makes aged paper feel very special to me. The pieces I work with usually range from 60-130 years old, beginning as pages, covers or dust jackets of old books, pupating as art supplies and eventually metamorphosing into works of art. ⠀ Beneath the layers of paint and pencil, the papers carry with them secret unknowable histories: countless owners, travels, stories, conversations overheard, private moments witnessed, the distilled traces of lives lived and forgotten. ⠀