Description
Title: “Long-eared Owl with Oak Foliage (Jigsaw Puzzle)”
Artist: Michael Autumn
Date: 2023
Country: UK
Description: The idea behind this artwork was to have a tactile, life-sized, long-eared owl, and to toy with the idea – “You are what you eat”. Long-eared owls are ferocious predators (as are all owls) – and will basically eat anything that moves that is smaller than them! They often swallow their prey whole, and regurgitate a large pellet of the undigestible parts – such as bones, teeth, fur, and feathers. Indeed, examining their pellets is how ornithologists know so much about what they eat.
This is a very high quality laser-cut “art” jigsaw puzzle – directly cut (and scored) from an original hand-drawn design. The design is a specially enhanced drawing of my original hand-cut thick solid oak artwork entitled “Long-eared Owl (Jigsaw Puzzle) (You are what you eat)” (2022) (see https://michaelautumn.wordpress.com/2023/05/03/long-eared-owl-jigsaw-puzzle-you-are-what-you-eat/ and https://youtu.be/jWsK6TFEevk).
Jigsaw Puzzle?
This is not a jigsaw puzzle in the conventional sense of the word: it is not simply a print stuck on card or wood – and cut into puzzle pieces – where the jigsaw puzzle was never envisioned by the artist (or photographer). Most jigsaw puzzles are a commercial after-design afterthought. However, this artwork was designed from the outset, and from the ground up, as a jigsaw puzzle. This is an artwork where every single line drawn was specifically designed to be cut as interlocking puzzle pieces. This is not a cut-up picture – there are only completely intentional cuts/joints – to make a work of art.
The “art” side of this artwork is where I have designed the owl to show that it is literally made of many of the wide variety of creatures that it eats. I used the simple jigsaw-puzzle you-are-what-you-eat metaphor to illustrate this puzzling (pun intended!) transformation of lots of small animals making up an owl. My hope is that interacting with art like this will make you think more about the message in it than if it was a normal drawing or painting…
This is a line drawing – where the strong lines are cut through the wood (to form the jigsaw puzzle pieces), and the weaker lines are scored and engraved on to the surface of the wood (to add extra detail) – by the use of a very high quality laser.
This laser-cut artwork has considerable extra detail compared to the aforementioned artwork, and has a rich oak foliage background – to take full advantage of the extra cutting and scoring precision achievable with a very high quality laser – compared to hand-cutting and scoring. Also I wanted to produce much more affordable art – compared to my very laborious (and strenuous!), hand-cut, hand-finished, original artworks.
Laser-cut
This is not ordinary laser cutting: this is laser-cutting pushed to its limits. The usual flaws of laser cutting – scorching, burn marks, unsharp, brittle and crumbling edges, poor detail – might be acceptable to most people, but wasn’t acceptable to the me – a self-confessed perfectionist with OCD! So over several months I exhaustedly researched the problems, tried various solutions, found some to be too labour intensive, thought outside the box, made a special tool, and eventually came up with a workflow of pre-, and post-, production, specially selected materials, and using special techniques. Now I’m very happy with the results: near perfection and consistency – I think it’s the best you are likely to see – or feel…
Editions: This is the unlimited edition (a limited edition is also available here https://michaelautumnart.etsy.com/uk/listing/1562487131/long-eared-owl-with-oak-foliage-jigsaw).
Material: finest quality 3mm hardwood plywood
• sustainably produced wood
• specially treated (protected against frequent handling, moisture, water spills, saliva, dirt)
o non-cracking, non-peeling, non-flaking
o (the limited edition has a higher specification – see “Limited Edition” section below)
Number of pieces in puzzle: 156
Jigsaw puzzle size: 297mm (H) x 210mm (W)
N.B. Not suitable for young children due to the very small size of some of the pieces (the smallest are approximately 10mm x 5mm), however, the varnish meets child safety standards (EN 71.3).
Unlimited Edition
The unlimited edition is a very high quality laser-cut wooden jigsaw puzzle – probably the highest quality wooden jigsaw puzzle available anywhere – as of 2023 (apart from the limited edition version of course). These are not mass-produced: they are individually produced on a very fine laser – taking well over an hour each – and afterwards they are individually inspected and counted to guarantee quality.
