Saturday 6 April 2013

Sack of Heart Triptych



This is a sort-of triptych.  The opened chest was heavily inspired by a 1920s paper fold out which I bought on Etsy many years ago.  I have always loved those fold out human body illustrations, especially the 1960s -70s ones that were printed on plastic.  My version is roughly life size.  Did you know that the Spam that we buy here is made in the U.S.?  Are we not capable of manufacturing our own Spam?!  I felt a little embarrassed buying my Spam model, which is interesting considering that grilled Spam sandwiches were my favourite after school snack.  The last part of the triptych is a moth.  It is based on the metaphorical moth which lands on the heart in moments of disappointment in Arundhati Roy's The God of Small Things.  (Or something like that.)  I found the moth a bit tricky to paint.  Let's say it has a naive quality.

2 comments:

Saskia said...

Ha. An opened heart and a can of Spam are the perfect grisly partners! Love the butterfly too. My son has been caring for a caterpillar the last few months, which a couple of days ago emerged from its terrarium as a fluttering Tiger moth. So exciting!
PS. Spam was a favourite of mine when younger too – cut into little cubes with pineapple pieces and toothpicks (fancy 1970s after-school snack).

Sandra Eterovic said...

Thanks as always Saskia. Your son is so lucky to witness that! I used to love raising tadpoles for the same reason.

Your version of the Spam snack was SO much fancier than ours -- OOH LA LA!! Golden CIrcle pineapple pieces, no doubt. ;-)