Leslie B. Grigsby Beadwork

This sculpture made a three-year visit to Africa, where it was included in the Art in Embassies (US Department of State) exhibition at the US Embassy in Malabo, Equatorial Guinea (Spring 2016-Spring 2019).

Tigger / Tiger…or Who She Thinks She Is is one in a series of animal-themed works and was inspired in part by our somewhat demented cat.  No, Tigger may not be the most original name for a stripey feline, but if you’d met her, you’d understand how perfectly that name  suited her personality!  Here she is, when  just a kid, posed and ready for action on my favorite beading chair…

The title of this piece also reflects how I feel about myself, though my inner tiger rarely actually sees the light of day.  (Maybe that’s a good thing?)

As was true of Hide (Fawn) and Changing Spots (Leopard), the beading on this sculpture was worked in peyote stitch over a taxidermy form.  In this case, the form is for a wild cat known as a caracal or desert lynx.  Native to Africa, Asia and India, caracals feature a narrow, elongated head and neck (resembling Tigger’s) and a muscular body (more like that of a tiger).  I reduced the proportions of the caracal’s ears to more closely resemble those of a house cat.  The wild animal’s natural beige to grey overall shades were transformed to the grey and black stripes of a tabby cat, pixelating to the brilliantly contrasting black and golden hues of a tiger.

This sculpture, my largest yet, took about eighteen months to complete.

Tigger/Tiger, or Who She Thinks She Is

Glass seed beads in peyote stitch over dense foam core

H.: 19″; L.: 18″ horizontally, from nose-tip to outer curve of tail

Exhibited: “New Now IV,” InLiquid Gallery, Philadelphia (2021); Gravers Lane Gallery, Philadelphia (2019-21); Art in Embassies, US Department of State exhibition, Malabo, Equatorial Guinea, Africa (2016-19), and Wexler Gallery (2015).

Available for purchase 

In the below views, I was about 9 1/2 months into the project.  The two pieces of the cat (front and back) were taped together so that the figure could sit upright for the photos.  And the animal’s ears had been added, so my friends would stop saying “she’s a bit creepy looking”!

The below images carry you backwards in time.  The first views were shot when I had been working on the sculpture for about 6 1/2 months.

Next are images portraying the work at about 4 1/2 months in.

Finally, and lowest on this page, you can view the sculpture at about two months in.