Cat's Cradle

Laura: In the child’s game of Cat’s Cradle, the string loop is manipulated by two or more people who pass it between each other. Fingers and hands hold the string pattern clearly for the next person to pick up, change, and pass along. The similarities between the game and our collaborative project occurred to me. We receive a piece of art which is in progress, see a path, then add our content and ideas, and pass it to another artist. I drew the contour hands onto a collaged wooden surface, but instead of young hands, I made them old to reflect our stage of life.  A transferred image of a coffee cup provided an interior setting for the hands.

Sheila: The first piece I received in our journey was flat and, being a sculptural artist, flat is always a challenge. I decided to add some dimension to this work and to expand the size of this piece. Therefore I sewed the protective cover to the work, added piano keys and musical notes, and sprayed a woven background onto the work.

Loretta: I was inspired by the Cat’s Cradle string game represented by the gold line in Laura’s hand contour drawing and responded by echoing the shape in a golden string, wrapped around the piano keys' capstans (plus my added map pins). For a visual connection between the hand and piano keys, I dusted the keys with light smudges of gold glitter. I also wanted to expand the ends of the golden lines of Laura’s drawing beyond the edge of the picture plane to suggest playful possibilities of what else her hands and imagination might create. I used thin gold wire to continue the lines into wavy spiraling shapes radiating from the right side of the panel. For shipping purposes, these were taped to black paper, as shown in the process photo here, with instructions to Chrystene for removing the paper and letting the wires float freely. What she did with them was a delightful surprise.