Early in October more than one person forwarded me information about the Easthampton Citywide Scarecrow Contest.
Other years I’d caught wind of this kind of event, thought “We should do this,” and then promptly forgot about it and went on to the next thing. This pandemic year is different. I find myself actively looking for opportunities to stretch and refresh my artistic life. So, I thought, “We will do this” and brought up the idea to Mark.
We started with a deadfall from the Norwegian Maple behind our studio finding two limbs that might work as a body. It was very satisfying to use something that had been destined for the brush dump.
Resurrected the bird feeder support from the shed to use as a support and began to see how the two pieces might work together. What wonderful inventions bungee cords are. Harvested two catalpa branches from the neighborhood as arms/wings. Lashed them on.
Tried a few options from our bone collection and settled on a horse skull; right scale, good look.
The next morning, we brought the project into my studio before the rain started. Lashed turkey feathers to the ends of the arm/wing branches with twine.
Mark set a dowel into the top and bottom branches so that they would lock together strongly. Would that it could be that easy to bring our progressive and conservative brothers and sisters together.
We began to look for a place to install the scarecrow sculpture. There were three possibilities in the front yard, and we chose a space close to the corner of Water Street and Water Lane near a couple of rocks.
Mark collected the tools we would need to install the scarecrow and got started. The soil in the front yard is very rocky but luckily, we missed any big ones.
Susan attached a crown of corn flowers as a headdress.
Our scarecrow is complete! We named it Equine Spirit in honor of the horse who once wore the skull that became its head. Many thanks to the neighbors who organized the event and inspired us to forage for the elements to create this creature.
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Equine Spirit
Easthampton, MA
2020