Vanishing Spirits: The Dried Remains of Single Malt Scotch

Vanishing Spirits – The Dried Remains of Single Malt Scotch The idea for this project occurred while putting a used Scotch glass into the dishwasher. I noted a film on the bottom of a glass and when I inspected closer, I noted these fine, lacy lines filling the bottom. What I found through some experimentation is that these patterns and images that are seen can be created with the small amount of Single Malt Scotch whisky left in a glass after most of it has been consumed. It takes between two and four drops of whisky to create these patterns. If I can see the amber color of the liquid Scotch, I’ve left too much. The alcohol dries and leaves the sediment in various patterns. It’s a little like snowflakes in that every time the Scotch dries, the glass yields different patterns and results. I have used different color lights to add ‘life’ to the bottom of the glass, creating the illusion of landscape, terrestrial or extraterrestrial. Some of the images reference the celestial, as if the image was taken of space; something that the Hubble telescope may have taken or an image taken from space looking down on Earth. The circular images in the series reference a drinking glass, typically circular, and what the consumer might imagine if they were to look at the bottom of the glass after the scotch has dried. Ernie Button