The idea for a glam salmon-bone dress swam around in Cynthia Gibson’s head for a while before she got cracking on her vision.
“Three years ago I collected buckets and buckets of small vertebrae. Bones in general, I find beautiful. They have a beautiful line and form,” said the Sitka artist. “I always wondered why no one was doing much with salmon vertebrae because they’re everywhere and they’re easy to bead. They already have a hole in the center of them from the spinal cord.”
A dress draped with 20,000 salmon bones by Sitka artist Cynthia Gibson. (Stephanie Lambdin Productions)
Herbs, Butterflies and a Serpent, Christian Jansz Striep, Nationalmuseum, SWE
This still life painting forms an entire little natural scene. Against the dark background vivid whitish butterflies flutter among leaves and plants. But something very dramatic is also about to happen—the grayish yellow snake stretches to catch one of the butterflies in its open jaws. In many Dutch still lifes from the seventeenth century the artists included a variety of symbols. In this case the snake could be interpreted as a symbol for Satan, while the luminous butterflies could symbolize Jesus or the human soul.
