"Bulgarian Child Eating a Rat" The Painting That Made Me Say Yes (And Made Me Make This Necklace)

On Salvador Dalí, rats, love, and the subconscious mind of a jeweler.

https://youtube.com/shorts/3fuuVuBmsq4?si=2v5tzbzKYk3WBBVy
see the actual painting my husband painted at age 11 in this video

There is a Salvador Dalí painting called "Bulgarian Child Eating a Rat". Dalí painted Bulgarian Child Eating a Rat in 1943. It is exactly what it sounds like. A child. A rat. An expression of complete, unselfconscious satisfaction. It is strange and beautiful and very wrong in the best possible way. It is also, I now realize, one of the images that has lived in the back of my brain for years, quietly shaping the way I think about what strange beauty actually looks like.

"Bulgarian Child Eating a Rat by Salvador Dalí 1943"

Early in my relationship with my now husband, he showed me a framed painting he had done when he was an 11 year old boy. It was a watercolor replica of Salvador Dali's "Bulgarian Child Eating a Rat". It blew my mind that a kid would be drawn to such a macabre image. I was smitten. 

Which brings me to the "Baby Eating a Rat Necklace"

"Baby Eating a Rat Necklace handmade sterling silver by Karen Yost Anomaly Jewelry NYC"
I did not consciously set out to make something similar to this Dali painting. When I was designing this piece, I wasn't thinking about my husband or the painting. I was combining two of my favorite images- a rat and a baby head.  But when I finished this necklace and looked at it, I knew exactly where it came from. It is strange and beautiful and a little wrong in the best possible way. 

Anomaly Jewelry has always been about this. The dark and the light. The humor inside the strange. The beauty that lives in places most people walk past without stopping. I make jewelry for people who don't flinch. For the ones who love what they love without apology. 

SHOP my Baby Eating a Rat Necklace HERE