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Blown Away, 2003; 43" x 24" x 12"; spaulted sycamore, cherry, found objects, copper; (c) James Mellick, 2003
This idea began as an emotion rather than a form or story. It is the feeling of being vulnerable and overwhelmed. If there is a story, it is one of being "blown away" by some unseen force. Edvard Munch's "Scream", Goya's "The Third of May" and Picasso's "Guernica" come to mind as similar emotions. As allegory, this is a contemporary form of 19th Century Romanticism when sculptures depicted the brutality of untamed nature, animals devouring other animals, were often metaphors for man's inhumanity to man.
It is the feeling of apprehension on a beautiful day as the wind picks up and storm clouds billow above a greenish sky on the horizon. It is hearing a screaming pack of coyotes that shatters the quiet of the night as they are on the trail of a fawn, and the house dogs, sleeping warm and full, begin to pace with the call of the wild. It is walking a wooded trail carpeted with spring flowers only to come upon a raccoon twisting and twitching in dementia and a 32 caliber slug ends it's misery. It is the cute little mouse that ends up as fur pellets at the bottom of an owl's nest. It is the beautiful tree brought down by the snaking, choking wild grape vine. Nature is filled with angels and demons.
What unseen force threw this powerful dog? The wind? A bear? Another dog? A rifle shot? The dog lands on a found stump with the grain of angel's wings. Discovered in the carving of the paws were two bullet fragments that became additional content.