What’s good, Modesto?
Welcome to our newest project, Modesto Makers Moment.
The Modesto Focus has partnered with local filmmakers with the Modesto Artists Movement (MAM), to showcase area artisans, personalities and regular people who make the city a more interesting and lively place.
It’s no secret that Modesto has an active film community. The artists behind the camera each have a unique storytelling ability. Outside of the film competitions and classroom projects, many creators are looking to expand their horizons, said MAM CEO Sam Pierstorff.
We’re working together to match filmmakers with artisans, and to showcase both on our site. We’re looking to create a body of work that brings people behind the curtain to experience how magic is made in small ways all across the city.
Through the lenses of these homegrown talents, we are bringing you short video snapshots (less than two minutes each) of local artists whose antics create the thriving creative community that pack Modesto’s social houses, street markets and coffee shops.
To kick off the series, we worked with videographer Joseph “Bones” Pethoud, also known as BonesInTheBooth, to feature an Oakdale-based bone artist.
Pethoud often shoots nightlife events, concerts and commercial footage, but this project was right up his alley. Because of his moniker, he found it fitting that he was the one to showcase local bone artist Roslyn Neal’s work.
Meet the maker
Neal, a 54-year-old artist who goes by Raven Moon Enchantments, has lived in the area for three decades. A traveler, former medical professional and mother to a daughter, 27, and a son, 30, her pieces turn natural materials into decorations and jewelry.
Her bone-based work began three years ago with animal bones she found on hikes or in the orchards near her house and turned into jewelry. Today, she often picks up roadkill.
Thinking about how local wildlife is discarded or left to decay on roadways, Neal says turning their remains into art is a personal experience. Her work often resonates with people who have a deep respect for all living things, an attitude she says is too often absent in our society. But she said she has found more of the sentiment among the younger generations, especially women in their 20s and 30s.
Putting death on display is comforting to Neal.
“I just want people to know that there is life after death,” she said. “I believe there’s life after death. I don’t know what it includes, but this, to me, it’s bringing the spirit of the animal into art, and (customers) can take a piece of that animal home with them.”
Pieces range from $5 fridge magnets to $160 candelabras adorned with bones and crystals. Her most common sales are wall plaques or decorative cloches that go for $45 and up.
The moniker Raven Moon Enchantments comes from her first two loves: ravens and the moon. The former has always played a significant role in her life.
“They symbolize transformation, and they act as a bridge between the physical and spiritual world, which plays a big significance in my current journey right now,” she said.
The moon connection stems from her relationship with her father, who passed away in 2011. She has fond memories of sitting with him, looking up at the night sky.
The word enchantments is to be taken literally.
“I am casting a spell and alchemizing a bone into something beautiful,” she said.
Slow, stinky work
She first discovered bones-based art when it came across her feeds online. She has since joined a community of artists who freely share advice on the craft together. In the past year, she has seen her skills blossom and easily finds her creative flow.
But before the bones become beautiful, there are several steps. First, she forages for wildlife.
She will often find parts of a deer, squirrels, turkeys, mice and other critters with skin and muscle still attached.
Bones (Pethoud) and I went foraging with her one morning and learned that she does not take fresh roadkill. The vultures, she said, need to eat first. She and other bone foragers take note of these locations and will go back for the remains later.
For smaller bones, she will piece through owl pellets, sometimes finding complete mouse skeletons. While she walks, she is also on the lookout for interesting pinecones, acorn caps and dead or discarded natural elements to add to her work.
It’s important to note that she follows local regulations and guidelines when it comes to collecting and foraging remains. For example, there are certain classifications of animals that cannot be collected. You can find these by contacting the fish and wildlife departments in your area.
Once she is satisfied with her haul, she brings everything home and begins macerating, or removing the tissue and fats from the bones. The process is not for impatient people, or anyone with weak stomachs.
Depending on how much skin and tissue is still attached to the bones, she will bury a shallow grave and leave it to further decompose. In the three years since she began practicing this skill, she’s learned a lot about how to keep her burial sites from flooding, best practices for recovering the animal and so on.
Then, the bones go into buckets of water. The process of removing all the viscera outside and marrow inside can take weeks or months. From there, she will lighten bones with hydrogen peroxide and categorize them by type.
She never gets used to the rancid odor. She does her best to do these tasks early in the morning so she’s not messing with them in the heat. Sometimes the buckets splash on her, but none of it phases her anymore.
Results are a ‘journey’
The whole process is meditative to her. She thinks about the animal’s life and considers what each bone might become at her workbench.
She plans to incorporate wood burning into future pieces, and when the time comes, she can see herself dabbling with soldering bones into jewelry and plaques.
“It’s been a journey,” she said, while restocking her section at The Raven’s Perch, “I look at some of the work that I did when I first started, and I’m like, ‘Whoa, damn! My art has definitely grown. My creative mind has grown. My artistic eye has grown.’ Everything has really blossomed.”
You can always find her at work at Raven’s Perch, a downtown Modesto bookstore. Neal has found a steady customer base there as one of the shop’s top vendors.
Even though Neal raised her family in Oakdale, she rarely ventured into Modesto for its art scene before. Now, you might catch her at the Queen Bean making earrings or vending at The Alchemist Cafe.
Each vending experience inspires her art, as she learns from other artists and their techniques. Her work takes her to craft fairs all over, and often into the Sierra-Nevada foothills, where she has a section at Murphys Mystical Emporium.
She said joining Modesto’s art scene has given her the confidence and support needed to make bone art a full time job.
“Everybody just kind of welcomed me with open arms, and everybody’s just been amazing and very supportive, encouraging, and like giving me little hints of, ‘Hey, you should go and talk to this person’,” she said.
“I love Modesto. I kind of isolated myself for many years, living on the east side of town, and didn’t really understand much about the community until I got here.”
Vivienne Aguilar is the arts/education reporter for The Modesto Focus, a project of the Central Valley Journalism Collaborative. Contact her at vivienne@themodestofocus.org.