Ammonites

After more than a week of being under the weather, I managed to spend an entire day in the studio without having to nap. That felt good especially since I was able to move forward with some ideas I’ve been thinking about for a series of sculptural forms.

Last weekend I went to a rock and gem show. And just by chance I came across a table of fossils, including ammonites. Umm, maybe Peter is the one to first have spied them. But for now I’m taking credit. I have always had a fascination with ammonites. I think it’s the spiral form of them that I’ve been so attracted to.

A few weeks ago, when I was wandering the internet, ostensibly doing research, I ran across this representation of ammonites in Wikipedia. I did not know that they are thought to be more closely related to octopi and squid. But it does fuel my imagination when I think of the vast prehistoric inland sea that lies beneath my current near desert home. The glaze palette I've used for some of the earlier tests and pieces I've done, is directly inspired by this painting. I love the idea of a hidden world under my feet. One that was once alive, breathing, flourishing.

It is interesting to me that the name ammonite comes from Pliny the Elder who called them ammonis cornua (horns of Ammon) because the Egyptian oracle god, Ammon, is often depicted with ram’s horns. Ammon was the lord of good counsel, and the spelling, by the way, is the Greek version.

The ammonite fossil is widespread both in time it occurred in the fossil record and distribution across the world. In medieval Europe ammonites were thought to be petrified snakes and were considered to be evidence of the actions of Saint Hilda and Saint Patrick. Some Hindu believe that the ammonite is a manifestation of Vishnu.

I could get quite lost in researching the place of the ammonite in history. I find it quite a fascinating but it is time to move on to using this form in my work. Maybe I’ll come back to it later, some rainy day when I’ve no inspiration.