Nickell’s Bag

Some may recall that a couple of months ago, I posted an interesting story about a commissioned family portrait that Michael deMeng was working on for us. In a nutshell, Michael (who works with found objects) wanted to use a monkey as the representation of our infant son Julian (we sometimes call Jules our “little monkey”), so he went to the Missoula Antique Mall to look for one. As he was walking in the front door, he paused to take a look at a strange little brown…thing…on the ground. Turned out, it was a little ceramic monkey. Weird. His telling of it is even weirder, because of the bizarre details (and a photo of what he saw on the ground).

Anyway, we got the completed artwork from Michael last month. It’s so freaking awesome. Click through to see it, and to hear even more weirdness that has befallen…

So here’s the piece (click the image to access a much bigger/more detailed view). It’s called “Monkey Shines.” It’s about four feet tall, and weighs all of 37 pounds. Those who know DaLynn and me (or who follow this blog or the Missoulian) will appreciate Michael’s incorporation of those tall, Chinese-style plaster figurines as representations of us — since of course, we recently got back from a trip to China. The monkey, if you’re wondering, is in the little alcove above and between the heads of the two large figurines, below the treble clef. I love all the subtle details that surround the figures (not to mention the pseudo-goggles that he put on the figures themselves), the way the dotted line connects everything, the use of the old heater parts (the bottom and side “wings”), and the treble-clef doorknocker, which was my grandmother’s.

So.  About that monkey. Click through here to read Michael’s recent follow-up. It’s just plain bizarre.

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