Big Fly, Navajo mentor

Big Fly, mixed media sculpture
34cm x 32cm x 30cm
wooden base with wire armature

Big Fly
a mentor,
takes earthly being form
of horse bot fly.

He too is blood red.
Danger.

Perched
on an ear
to whisper
instructions,
answers,
forecasts of the future.

Deafness
necessitates
entering
host's mouth,
to bellow.

Dance
Big Fly
dance,
break free
of
mounted specimen pins.


Okay, I can sense that quizzical look on your face. "What is Kelly drinking on this fine Earth Day?" The answer is dandelion tea, to be truthful. Big Fly is one of the Intercessors that I created two years ago. From Navajo readings I meditated and then fabricated Grandmother Spider, Yellow Rat, and Big Fly. With each , I write "words". I hesitate to call it poetry because I do not care for labels and I do not want to be encumbered by the rules of the game.

" So, explain the words ! "

Thankfully in the book about Navajo religion there were no images of Big Fly. I could imagine anything that I wanted. I thought about Big Fly's "job" here on Earth. A big job, getting humans to listen. I imagined that no one was listening to Big Fly and that in desperation he had taken the form of an earthly species . A fly that gets attention in a big way. The horse bot fly.

The last "paragraph" refers to the cigar box science lesson that teaches kids to kill insects and pin them in a cigar box for a good grade. Big Fly has broken free of these pins.

The red cross (which you will come to see appears on all my Intercessors) lets us know that the Intercessor has come down to Earth to help misguided human species.

Big Fly is created out of leather which is painted , sewn by hand, and then stuffed with a wire armature and cotton batting. The wings are of old copper wire window screen . Many of the seed beads used were recycled from a bedraggled Victorian era dress. The base is another recycled piece, a wooden form. Big Fly holds an old hat pin which represents the specimen pin.

I have decided that Big Fly will appear within this blog when I feel the need to post "the emperor hasn't any clothes on once again" soap box "sermons". Big Fly will tap tap tap us with the specimen pin to remind us to listen to his gentle whispers. If we don't listen , he will have to take on the form of the horse bot fly.

back to my dandelion tea and sewing tiny beads to leather......