Jennifer Weigel Art Collection Highlights
You can’t write or make art without collecting some things now and then, and I have amassed quite the assortment of unique odds and ends… I am an avid junk thrift fiend, and I cannot help but pick things up, especially the more unusual they are. Here are a few glimpses into my art collection of some of my more macabre findings.
From left to right: a very old doll with those eyes that open and close but with no eyewhites who a friend described as a laudanum addict; a tiny Buddha figure with hands over the face and surrounded by a cobra (if anyone knows what specific deific representation this is please let me know); a photograph by my friend Cindy Royal of her rescued Cedar Waxwing and one of her creatures (I love her creatures so much); a doll I made based on my Unselfie avatar in costume regalia with mirror over the face; and a graphite drawing by Kathy Gomric of a demonic rendition of my friend Cindy
From left to right: a pair of brass bookends I altered to lose their hands and faces as a found object artwork later shown in response to COVID; a photocopy montage by my friend Jonathan Stangroom of his face with a drawing of an eye Xeroxed on clear and superimposed over his closed eye; Triple Moon Goddess bas relief sculpture by Wild Goose Studio; alien abduction with volcano by Ra De; Baby Metropolis – a Precious Moments head given to me by my friend Cindy and altered by myself
From left to right: Gods and Monsters original canvas of Frankenstein’s Bride by my friend Aunia Kahn; Fuggler funny ugly monster plush of Bigfoot with “stolen” teeth; photo of the Berlin Wall graffiti from before the wall was dismantled by Ed Murray; found photo postcard of Frankenstein and his bride superimposed on famous image of Navy sailor and nurse kissing after WWII; clown tipping his hat by Mildred Barone
Skeleton Key ceramic by myself; Sinister serpent wood staff held by the Grim Reaper by Beth Vannatta; skull painted rock by Jane Wees Martin; blue and white porcelain snake headed man in Asian robe; cultist ceramic commissioned from Clayworks; All Seeing Monkey Paw hamsa with eye on monkey hand by Caitlin Zachow; decorated plaster skull mail art sent by William Evertson and friends; computer mouse crab by Bruce Wood of the Glass Ingot
And the pièce de résistance… a real life taxidermy shih tzu. I kid you not, this was an actual dog, and not a recent under-the-rug China-imported real dog pretending to come from another fur bearing animal, but a prized pet that the inheritors of the estate likely didn’t know what to do with. I found Da Ting at an antique mall and splurged on her for my birthday, much to my mother’s chagrin. (For those of you in the know, these kinds of things aren’t easy to come by; they are often buried with their beloved owners or stay in the family.) I even held a naming contest for her on Facebook which is how she wound up with her name, Duchess Mitsi Posh von Schitz III (otherwise known as Da Ting). Here she models a pastel purple boa; she also borrows my rhinestone princess crown from time to time…
What do you collect? What skeletons lurk in your closet, or even out in the open in the parlor?…
Continuing our AI journey from last time exploring Little Red Riding Hood herself as the Big Bad Wolf… All of these are based upon the AI generated art and prompts using NightCafe and then created as posters in Canva.
How very… Phantom of the Opera predatory… this is definitely not what I had in mind. Maybe something more cutesy?
Ugh. Maybe not.
Wow, that seems like such a cop out, cropping off the head so you don’t have to depict it. And I don’t want to lose the Little Red Riding Hood reference completely.
So no surprise there, I knew that was too many references to work.
And we continued to devolve, join us again next week for the final installment to see how this ended… And again, if you want to catch the last AI art journey, you can find it on Haunted MTL here. To see more such devolutions into AI generated art, check out the Will the Real Jennifer Weigel Please Stand Up? blog.
And as promised in Big Bad Poetry, we shall embark on our next AI journey, this time looking at Little Red Riding Hood. I had wanted to depict her as the Big Bad Wolf one and the same, although maybe not so big nor bad. But it just wasn’t happening quite as planned. All of these are based upon the AI generated art and prompts using NightCafe and then created as posters in Canva.
So I actually like this even better than my original vision, it is playful and even a bit serene (especially given the Sinister style). The wolf is just being a wolf. It’s quite lovely, really. But it wasn’t what I had in mind, so I revisited the idea later to see if I could get that result…
Well, that’s not quite right…
Yeah more of the same…
And as you can see this is starting to devolve quickly. Join us again next week to see how this continued to develop… And if you want to catch the last AI art journey, you can find it on Haunted MTL here. To see more such devolutions into AI generated art, check out the Will the Real Jennifer Weigel Please Stand Up? blog.
So considering my recent revival of a wolfwere and his Lucky Days and Nightmarish Nature’s hostile humanity, it seems we are due for a visit from Little Red Riding Hood, or perhaps even Big Bad himself… Here’s a poem on the subject by Jennifer Weigel.
Over the river and through the wood
flashed the fleet-footed Red Riding Hood
on her way to her “grandmother’s” house.
When running past, who should she see
but just one of the little pigs three
cowering like but a tiny mouse.
“But my dear piggy, what do you fear?”
Red Riding Hood asked as she slunk near,
teeth hidden under a sheepish smile.
The nervous small pig looked up in fright
and decided that Red was alright,
missing the subtle clues by a mile.
“The Big Bad Wolf, that horrible beast
upon the other wee pigs did feast!”
the last little pig said with a squeal.
Red Riding Hood laughed with a great growl
and threw back her heavy long-robed cowl,
in a vast terrifying reveal.
For she was really the wolf Big Bad
hidden beneath the cape that he had
stolen from Red Riding Hood at point.
“And now I’ve caught you too my pretty
and surely t’wouldn’t be a pity
if I gobbled you up in this joint.”
T’was then the wee pig leapt to his feet
And cried, “Big Bad Wolf, I shall defeat,
for I am no ordinary swine!”
The little pig also wore sheep’s clothes
spun in spells every woodland witch knows;
Old Granny herself was quite divine.
“Now give me back my granddaughter’s cape,
before I grab you by your ruffed nape
and send you pig-squealing down the road…”
The wolf dropped the cape and ran, that cur,
but Granny was swifter and hexed his fur
and the wolf she turned into a toad.
Thus the moral of this story goes,
when in the woods, no one really knows
what sheepish sheep’s clothing is a ruse
that big bad wolves and old witches use.
So this is actually an intro to my next AI art journey with NightCafe which developed from me not getting the results I wanted (Little Red Riding Hood herself as a wolf). Here’s a preview with Eric’s versions as he is much more literal in his prompting than I am, but where’s the fun in that? 😉
Prompts (from left to right) in Dark Fantasy style, executed Aug. 1, 2023:
Bipedal wolf in Red Riding Hood’s cloak
Bipedal wolf in Red Riding Hood’s cloak close up portrait
Bipedal wolf in red cloak close up portrait
Feel free to check out more of Jennifer Weigel’s work here on Haunted MTL or on her writing, fine art, and conceptual projects websites.
