Whales Tales

" Hive" Patricia Chauncey
cast paper, welded silk, acrylic medium, bees wax and Coca Cola


We bought the gallery and high tailed it out of town and went to Oregon for the week.
The grey whales were waiting where we left them last year. The pelicans flew close to where we look over the cliffs to watch. The cow parsnip was just past bloom and going to seed and there were hundreds of lovely holey rocks on the beaches.

The hotel we rented was a townhouse that overlooked the beach in Lincoln City. Pale cream coloured butterflies landed on fleshy beaches. I got to return to the land my granny, great granny and great-great granny were born and listen to talk that sounded like theirs.

My great granny was the oldest survivng subscriber to the Oregonian when she died beside her bread pans full of prairie garden weeks short of 100. She first subscribed after her wedding at 15. She had it mailed to Canada after she left Oregon.

People are big in Oregon. I look like them. We watched as a family of huge Oregonians rode a covered bicycle powered surrey down the street. It creaked and scraped. The red faced riders headed down hill and we couldn't watch any more because of the impending disaster.

I found lots of display cases for my fabric creatures and watched as enormous kites dragged grown men along the sand. Kelp has the colour I want for the silicone creatures.