FLORAL BULL SKULL 2020 By Carter Watkins
20” X 20” X 11”
Seed Beads, beeswax, on bull skull
The creation of this piece- Work started in the spring of 2020. Spring is always an inspiring time, I love watching the life cycle of the central Texas wildflowers. However this spring was different. First there was the Covid-19 outbreak and subsequent global shutdown. I feel like I totally missed the wildflower bloom! or it was just a bad year for the flowers. The second significant life event that happened during the creation of this piece was the passing of my beloved step-dad Joe. He had been battling multiple myaloma (cancer) for 7 years. A couple weeks after the covid lockdown started Joe got a fever and had to go to the hospital, the doctors tested him and didnt find any covid. But his wife my (step-step-mom) Barbara could not be with him in the hospital because of the new restrictions and there was a real possibility that he could die alone in a hospital in Houston. He was no longer eligible for any more tials and he made the decision to live out the rest of his days at home with the family. He came home Friday April 17th. This was the first time in over 6 weeks that we had left our house and interacted with other people. It was an incredibly emotional week. When Joe was awake we were beside him, talking, watching movies, listening to music. When he was asleep I was working on this piece to keep my mind from dwelling on the “uncertain times” ahead. (Im so tired of the term “uncertain times”). On Friday April 24, i put the final bead on and got a text that Joe had a seizure. A day later he died.
Design Elements: 2 Yellow Daffodils. 2 ferns, 3 sunflowers, 2 common weed leafs, 5 6-petal flowers.
From wikipedia: Partial or deformed horns in livestock are called “scurs”. I think this bull was a borderline scur.
This piece is available for purchase.