Refrigerator magnets

Just what everybody needs on their frig—Carcass refrigerator magnets!

Each about 6in tall. These are woodblock-printed magnets.

The Meat Locker

Finished the basic book. Need to figure out outside container/walls. But for now, here’s some shots straight through from front–a tunnel book–Stretched out to about 12 inches deep in the last photo.

The Meat Locker
Tunnel book, hand-colored inkjet/litho onto watercolor paper
8″ x 8″ x variable depth

Closed:

Partially open:

Open:

Color litho “Sus scrofa” finished…

"Sus scrofa" • color lithograph • 18" x 18" • editioned

First color litho done. This is the first in the Bestiary: A Study Guide to Animal Taxonomy.

This fat little guy was the lone male in my group of 8 pigs I raised 2 summers ago. He and 3 of his sisters were from a herd of a wild-type hybrids bred by a neighboring farmer. The farmer breeds these hogs to survive out on a huge pasture, with little supplemental corn. They’re typically very thin, lean, and survive on whatever they can find out on pasture. Well, when we brought them home to our little pasture to be raised with 4 little pink piglets (typical, white, hybrid–probably Yorkshire, Landrace, Hampshire crosses), they made themselves at home. Since they were older, they quickly showed the little pink piglets how to cool off in the mudhole, where to find the waterer, where to bed down, etc. They were great older siblings to the pinkies.

One thing drastically changed for these wild guys when they moved to our place–they suddenly had free-choice hog feed (corn and soybean mix) from a huge feeder, open 24/7. They ate ravenously. Never before had they had access to this type/quantity of food. They began to swell as the weeks went by. They didn’t really grow up, but rather, out. They became enormously fat, and this guy here in the litho, swelled up like a watermelon. I thought he would burst. the little pink piglets however, grew like typical, white, yorkshire-cross hybrid American hogs–up and long and lean. They grew to enormous proportions–long, gently arching backs–looking like walking mountains from the side.

These wild guys ate very messily, food flying everywhere as they would grab a mouthful of feed, then whip their head out to look for predators–that part of their behavior stayed the same–they were always looking out for potential danger. When they whipped their heads up and out of the feeder, the grain literally flew out of their mouths and through the air as they munched with mouths open (as pigs will do).

Well, fall came, and they went off to the butcher. When we got the meat back, the white hogs’ meat was lean, and huge cuts (porkchops the size of dinner plates and all that), while the wild hybrid’s meat was heavily marbled and the cuts were tiny. The porkchops were actually cute–tiny little things–looking like baby porkchops. The bacon was the opposite of what you’d want in bacon–it was white, with a light marbling of meat!

So, they aren’t the best hogs to raise when you have free-choice feed available if you want lots of meat. But, if it’s lard you want, these are the hogs for you!

The series is inspired by my Zoology 335 class (Animal/Human Behavior with Patricia McConnell). More in this Animal Taxonomy series will be produced throughout the rest of this year, and then printed in artist’s book form (the Bestiary) as well as separate, framed prints.

New work (Gallus…)

Gallus americanus obesus
7 1/2 ft x 6 1/2 ft
mixed media

Now on view at 15 seconds, at the Art Lofts.

This big guy is modeled after one of my broiler chickens. For those unfamiliar with chicken breeds, there are different types of chickens for different purposes. All hens will lay eggs, and you can eat the meat of any chicken, but some breeds are made to excel in different ways. The Broilers, or Cornish-Cross, or Jumbo Broilers are bred to have big breasts and lots of meat. They grow quicker than other breeds, sometimes (as with the Jumbo) freakishly so. Unless you restrict their food intake, the Jumbos can have major leg problems (legs facing other directions or legs unable to withstand the weight of the chicken’s body… Yes, it can be horrific). After one season of raising these Jumbos, I swore “never again.” I still grow chickens for meat, and usually I do get chicks that are Cornish-Cross, or Broilers, but not the Jumbos. If managed carefully, they can grow up without leg problems.

But they still grow amazingly fast. And huge. I’ve got some 14 lb. broilers in the freezer (that’s 14lbs. dressed). I grow them because I’m a lazy cook. I like to be able to take one chicken and make literally weeks worth of meals out of the one bird (freezing dishes for later, etc). I also love the taste of fat chicken–the fat is what makes the meat (and the dishes) have so much flavor. Granted, moderation in eating this type of food is key, but I’d much rather eat a small amount of fat chicken than a “normal” or large portion of lean.

This said, I must say that there is something freakish about these birds, and stereotypically American about them. Supersized. In contrast, the French have these petite little 5lb Crevecoeurs, Mottled Houdans and the 6-7lb Faverolles. Those are their utility birds–for eggs and table. We have Jumbo Broilers. In 6-8 weeks they can weigh 4lbs and can be butchered then (or at the other extreme, wait till the end of summer and butcher at 20 lbs.). They are huge, white, obese things and to me, mirror the current culture and our struggle against human obesity. There’s no mystery here though–their genetics are such that they are always hungry and will eat continuously. Who wouldn’t be obese with those kinds of genetics? Also, these are sedentary birds. I raise them on pasture, but the extent of their exercise is to waddle out in the morning and plunk themselves down in front of the feeders and start scarfing down. This is what they are bred for–their genetics make them always hungry and thus they just pack on the pounds almost literally overnight. I have to take the feeders away during the day so that they don’t have leg problems, or keel over from heart attacks when scared (this did happen that year with the Jumbos…. I’d have to softly talk when I approached the barn in the morn to open up, otherwise, if I opened the door and they didn’t see/hear me coming they would startle. A couple of times, a broiler was so startled it just fell to the ground and died–perfectly healthy the night before).

So, this piece sort of encapsulates the essence of the American broiler chicken, taken to extremes (and allowed to grow older than the typical processing age of 6-8wks)–huge, obese, sort of freakish, a bit scary, wider than tall, good eatin’….

Market Weight Press it is…

A Beautiful Machine

This is a 1910 Potter Proof Press waiting to be cleaned up, have a chase added, and have some proofs printed on it. It’s made of cast iron and very heavy (it was unloaded with a tractor once home on the farm). The weight of things interests me, as we raise hogs for market every year, and the market weight of those hogs is something you have to be aware of. You try to guess when their weight is going to be at the right stage by the time you take them in to be processed, and you typically call months ahead with the butcher date.

Inspiration for the print shop name looms on the wall of the printing room here: A Few Months Past Market Weight, 7ft tall, acrylic on canvas. The story behind the painting is that one year we lost our spot at the butcher (they screwed up and didn’t write our hogs down on the date we requested back in early summer). When they finally were able to get our hogs in, they each averaged over 400lbs. Biiiiiiiig guys. Pork chops the size of dinner plates and all that….