Biohazard Tentacles

It appears I had one more biohazard egg mashup in me.  Hopefully this is last because quite frankly aside from being cathartic, I don't see the point.  I'm not actually going to send out Corona Easter cards or frame these on my wall. Also there are just too many possibilities, and I'm awful about making decisions.  Photoshop is like being at the eye doctor. "Which is better one or two?  One or two?" Which is why there is also the following version.  

The octopus is from the Biodiversity Heritage Library.   They have many lovely tentacally pictures.  

And there's this one, that's not even eggy or Eastery at all.  

Frame and corner scrolls are from the Graphics Fairy.

Coronavirus Flavored Easter Eggs

I'm still playing around with photoshop, inspired by the cloud of impending doom hanging overhead. If I seem flippant, I truly don't mean any disrespect.  Sarcasm and art are my coping mechanisms.  I also been watching "So bad, they're good" horror movies.  

Garden Party Massacre - It's utterly ridiculous, but in a fun way.

Killer Sofa - I admit this one isn't great, ok it's really hokey, but I love how sinister the recliner is. It's expressions are priceless, this deadpan menace that's kind of adorable, achieved with a couple of mere upholstery buttons.  Actually you can save a lot of time and just watch the trailer.  I really love the song during the end credits, that's worth a listen, You're Cold by Bernardo Rao.

Wacko - This is my favorite bad movie during the lockdown so far.  I can't believe I didn't see this on a rental VHS, like I saw most of my horror back in the day.  And I'm kind of glad I didn't, because I think I appreciated it more now than I would have then.  It came out in '82 and it's a spoof on the horror movies that came out prior.  So for an old fart like me it was a nostalgic laugh down memory lane.  Julia Duffy is wonderful.  I would watch it again just to see the delivery of her lines.  She carries that perfect level of seriousness that's needed to balance the absurd context around her. The running pervy dad joke is wrong, but it comes up so often you find yourself reciting along like an audience participation film.  

Back to our regularly scheduled program, I can't decide which version I like better Corona Egg in Angry Red or Puke Pastel and either with or without a framed border.  Here they all are for your viewing pleasure.

My interpretation of the coronavirus is actually a picture of a Sundew leaf, again from the wonderful pictures made available by the British Library. 

Easter Pestilence

This is what my brain spits out when Easter coincides with a pandemic.  I think this would make a nice commemorative 2020 Creepster Easter card.   This year I imagine the Easter Bunny will be wearing a biohazard suit and giving out hand sanitizer.  Just kidding, he'll be practicing social distancing like a good rabbit and not even the Easter Bunny can get his paws on hand sanitizer.  

Flowers found on flickr courtesy of the British Library.

Framed Butterfly Curio

This is one of those projects that I've been sitting on for years. It's not that I'm a procrastinator, or a hoarder, I am merely extremely patient when it comes to waiting for the powers that be, to converge upon my little brain with divine inspiration.

This time inspiration came via Oddity Asylum. Do check out their etsy shop, they have beautifully framed specimens, all ethically sourced.

I obtained my specimen the way I usually seem to procure dead things, from a friend cleaning house and deciding it's probably something I could use. But here is the origin story for my specimen:

I'm a little surprise there's no mention of the species, but it would appear it belongs to the Morpho family. Not to be confuse with Morpheus who belongs to the Endless family. 

As I mentioned, I've had this for quite awhile and I've also been making a conscious effort to not buy any new art supplies. To make this project happen I had to cave and buy the metal filigree corners and I couldn't even find what I wanted local.

I bought this mix from Amazon, actually Smile.Amazon.com, so at least my favorite charity could benefit. Every little bit counts.

This is what my random selection ended up being. The metal is very thin, easily bent by hand. An attribute that I think will come in handy if I use them to adorn a round bottle or ornament. I wouldn't use them to embellish anything that didn't have a solid surface to give support.

And if I didn't plan on painting over them anyway I would be disappointed in the color selection. The gold was the only finish I didn't like, which is just my personal taste. But there's no way to predict if you are going to get enough pieces of the same shape and finish for a project.

I forgot to take a before picture, but this is close. Here I've just laid the embellishments on to see if I like them.

Here's everything but the embellishments painted black. I actually had enough of the same finish that I could have left them as is, but I like everything all black, letting the butterfly take center stage. I toned down the gold on the original mat, both by painting it champagne gold, and by adding and wiping away black paint.

I don't know anything about, nor did I research, mounting butterflies. I don't know if painting the mat with acrylics will have any long term affect on the butterfly. I did let the mat and frame cure for a week before reassembling.

The butterfly was actually mounted onto a thick glob of rubbery white stuff, so the butterfly doesn't actually touch the mat. I used a box cutter blade to shimmy underneath it and separate it from the mat, which thankfully it did easily. And I was careful to move the butterfly by handling the white glob only. After painting and curing, I used craft glue to re-adhere the white glob to the mat. And this is what it looks like in proper lighting without the glare of the glass frame.

One more project down to add to my collection of oddities.