Nori Greer

Biological Sciences major

Antler Carvings

moose, white-tailed deer, and roe deer antler

Jewett Hallway Galleries

These carvings were made from bone, specifically the antlers of ungulates like moose and white-tailed deer, and shaped with whittling knives and files. As someone with ADHD, it helps to have projects to keep my hands busy. So, in place of a fidget spinner, I keep my current project and most of my tools in my side bag at all times Due to the hardness of bone, these are long-term projects that can take weeks or months to complete. It becomes an almost meditative process to slowly scrape, cut, and file away at the material as its final form is gradually revealed. Sometimes I'll have a vague idea of my desired outcome, but the destination is mostly informed by the journey as incidental marks and scratches become intentional design elements.

Carving #1 was my first dive into antler as a material, after I taught myself to whittle during lockdown. It is carved from moose antler, which is relatively soft. While I have worn it on my finger as a scary claw for Halloween, what is on display here is mostly the result of me learning my tools on a new matierla and pushing the limits of detail.

Carvings #2, 3, 4, and 6 are figurines. With the exception of #6, which is a fish, there was no single inspiration for any of the creatures depicted, I just followed my own sense of whimsy.

Carving #5 is a letter opener that I carved to look like an intricate fox. I love bone as a material not only because of the details it can hold, but also because of its functionality. As a craftsperson, I love when tools are both functional and a piece of art in and of themselves.

A Book About Bones

hand-bound book, moose antler, ink drawings

Jewett Hallway Galleries

The theme of this book is bones. The spine of the book is held together with carved antler, tying bone directly into the meat of it. Every day since binding this book I have spent several hours drawing different depictions of bones. Some of these were from reality, others from memory, and more from dreams and imagination. Bones are funny in the emotions they conjure; despite being the most solid part of our bodies, they are so often warped in the imagination. Some of the content I tackled included depictures of decay, preservation, fossilization, reanimation, and documentation. I drew inspiration from several sources, such as the anatomical collections at Wellesley, folklore, and various other media and artists.

Throughout the book I attempted to vary my style by oscillating between precision and gesture to capture the mood of the page. Many of my drawings are accompanied by bits of text in an alphabet I invented a little over a decade ago. It is a fairly simple code that can be read by anyone with a key, but it still feels like a secret. Another reason I like to use code is because it allows me to record thoughts and context while letting a viewer interpret the drawing without my immediate input. I also like the idea of meaning hiding in plain sight and requiring a key to be unlocked. In a way, that is also a lot like bones; anyone can look at them, but it takes extra knowledge to decode the stories they contain.

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