Love of Someone’s Life

HERE IS A REALLY ODD, COPPER ENCASED SILHOUETTE, CIRCA 1820, of a woman with a huge head and tiny little flipper-like hands. Turn the small oval frame over and you will find a finely interwoven, heart-shaped design in braided hair with the initial “M” in the middle of the hearts. Probably a love token, this object was spotted on eBay.

Silhouette Masterpiece Theatre

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WILHELM STAEHLE DESCRIBES HIMSELF “as a horribly disfigured gentleman who often frightens small children when he emerges from the seclusion of his sprawling estate on the eastern coast of the Americas.” Obviously his tongue-in-cheek, macabre humor extends to his artwork, where he spends his time “hand-cutting peculiar silhouettes when he is not sporting for wild game and dressing his disturbingly broad collection of taxidermy.”

Learn more about this artist, and visit his cool on-line shop by simply clicking here.

The Silhouette as Art

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THESE PHOTO SNAPSHOT SILHOUETTES, WHICH I JUST SPOTTED ON EBAY, ARE OF THE HOME MADE VARIETY. I’m thinking they may have been made as simple studies for an illustrator. Done in the early 1940s, they are nice examples of silhouettes, something that has been popular as an American art form since our nation was founded. Originally made from cut paper, or painted, it only seems natural that it would extend to photography after cameras became popular. With just a simple white sheet, a dark room and a bright light, you can have lots of fun. And, it looks like someone did, some 70 years ago.