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Not a Moose

This was a fun art project we did for Rose and Trav’s wonderful wedding in Melbourne. Cute stack of boxes, right? But what’s in the big box? Definitely NOT A MOOSE!

OK, so this all started with what we called “the moose” (actually some kind of stuffed deer head):

The problem was that Rosalie, the bride, has a crippling phobia of taxidermied animals. She literally can’t be in the same room as one.

So our our mission was: HIDE THE MOOSE!

But how?

We brainstormed by doing iPad paintovers to visualize our options. Starting with the obvious - throw a sheet over it:

Hmm… not so great. Maybe a dark sheet?

Ugh. We experimented with gathering/hiding the drape:

Hmmm. Maybe the white with flowers will work? We actually started gathering materials for this, but deep down we knew it sucked. At the end of the day, it was clearly a moose head under a sheet. If anything, it was kind of creepier. Now it’s kind of a ghost moose. A Ku Klux Klan moose.

Then, inspiration! Rather than fighting the moose-ness of the moose, what if we embrace it? Maybe wrap it up like a present? Or an old-timey package?

We liked the “brown paper package tied up in string” angle, especially with the brazen “this is not a moose” tag. Amy had some great butterflies and bird’s nests, so we integrated those as a final decorative touch:

We actually did this! A couple of hours with brown paper, string, and a bunch of vintage stamps (which we obtained by buying and cutting up a stamp-collecting magazine), and TA-DA!

The only problem? Trav’s (correct) judgement was that Rosalie still couldn’t stand to look at it. Uh oh… We had figured that if we hid the aged fur and creepy eyes it would be OK. But no, just the shape was too much. And the wedding was in less than 24 hours…

After some pondering, we realized we had to go big. The moose head is the major decorative feature of the room, so it was impossible to minimize it. So we had to conceal it entirely, giving no hint of the shape, in a way that didn’t mess up the aesthetics of the beautiful 1927 lounge room.

So we extended the “brown paper packages” theme, and built a box big enough to enclose the entire head! We contextualized the giant box with lots of smaller boxes. Then finished up with the stamps, string, and some butterflies, ivy, and bird’s nests.

Here’s the finished product:

The best part? Rosalie stood in the same room, smiling and talking to guests and generally not freaking out, for more than an hour!

Mission accomplished.