Surreal Dreamscape

6-month project completed

Working Title: Bosch Rock

Way back in June, with my husband’s help, we transported this interesting rock with a hand truck from the backyard to the front and set/rolled it onto a patch of moss where I took photographs of it. The next 3 months were spent thinking about it, researching Hieronymus Bosch and Pieter Bruegel for asset ideas, and thinking about it some more. I wanted to make something huge with lots of details, one leading to the next in a surreal dreamscape. Bosch and Bruegel used eggs, ladders, fish, demons, and skeletons to traumatize the people in their paintings. What would work for me?

In September I knew I had to “shit or get off the pot” so to speak. I worked on it a little at a time, whenever I had the chance, adding whatever ideas I had. Most of these are photographed by me, and a few are made from free stock photos like the wings on the seahorse and the cat. Layer by layer this dreamscape started to take shape.

That’s me as the marionette, two halves put together. Like the opposite of sawing a woman in half. The top half was from my jack-in-the-box portrait while the bottom was photographed recently in my basement studio. The lizard is stock but its wings were from a dragonfly I photographed years ago sitting on a green leaf. The frog is stock, but the eggshell is my photograph (and so is the large whole egg). The legs are my own, photographed in my studio while wearing crazy leggings and black boots.

The hot air balloon was created completely by me from an ornate wooden ball bought at a vintage store, ribbons from my gift-wrapping shelf, and a basket made by my husband’s grandmother. The pose of me in the basket (without the acorn hat) was taken in a large handmade nest in an outdoor art installation near Madison, WI.

See that guy with the worm in his nose? His eyes are mine and so are his teeth. The worm was photographed years ago when I was making my Creepy Crawly Alphabet Book. The snail shell is only 1cm tall, found in the garden. The one-eyed mouse above it was on a huge ash tree by the garage.

You get the idea.

Three months of piecing it together, making one thing lead to another, adding shadows, getting feedback, improving, changing, work work work until today.

Ta-Da!

What should I call it? I’ve been calling it Bosch Rock because it’s fun to say but it is hardly Bosch anymore. This is the latest Cindy Hansen creation that needs a name.

Suggestions are welcome in the comments!