sage o' skulls

I'm not sure if the image above could be considered 'mixed media' but I was drawn to it by the unique stenciling combined with contrasting decorative text. This image is/was on the transformer building at the abandoned Virginia Electric Power hydroelectric plant on Belle Isle, active from 1904-1963.

Usually paint fills in the empty space of a stencil but here the empty space provides the image somewhat like a silhouette. The black & red contrast is striking and the cattle skulls are not a common stencil motif.

The word "sage" offers perhaps the most semiotic possibility as it can be defined as a wise person, an evergreen shrub or a culinary spice. Our interpretive challenge now is to read the significance of the skull silhouettes.

Here the painter uses the traditional fill-in stencil approach and instead of a word, surrounds the skull with what looks like a red crescent - or maybe a semi-circle of blood...