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 Coyote Jawbone in Glass

Watercolour on

bfk Rivers printmaking paper

14 x 11 cm (5.51 x 4.33in)

A jaw is an instrument.
Designed for pressure, leverage, and repetition.

The structure is exact. Nothing decorative, nothing unnecessary. The demands of survival shape bone.

The mason jar is equally direct in its purpose, a vessel meant to preserve what might otherwise spoil.

Placed together, they become something else, an accidental archive. Function meeting function, the remains of one life held within the design of another.

NOTE:

Skulls have appeared in my work for many years. Their structure is uncompromising, every ridge and hollow shaped by necessity. Throughout history, they have also served as reminders of mortality, appearing in everything from medieval memento mori to contemporary art. In Shields, the skull becomes something closer to an emblem, divided by colour like a heraldic device.