I finished this Sculpey figure yesterday, working quietly in the studio, thinking of my friends and students in Las Vegas without me, reflecting on change and time's passage and carrying on. I had found a sketch that I did a couple of months ago in a pile of papers and glued it in my journal. (below). A sketch of a woman with her hand over her right eye.
This is the sketch. It took on new meaning for me as things are now, needless to say. As I looked at the sketch I became inspired to interpret the drawing in clay. To make a sculpture to memorialize the experience that's just passed.
Earlier in life I might have wanted to run from the memory and move on quickly but now I am much slower and more thoughtful. I no longer see life as a race to be won but rather as a performance of interaction and growth through experience. What happened to you? What did you take away from the experience? What have you learned?
So many of you have shared your own eye stories with me of loss, courage, hope and endurance. Every story has given me added strength and humble acceptance. Thank you all for taking the time to reach out to me. It feels like a tribe of people at their very best, helping a fallen member. I hope I can do the same for others, for I see how much it helps to feel surrounded by love and concern. I am off restriction as of today but I won't be reading as many blogs as I used to. It's tax time and time to prepare for the upcoming paraganglioma surgery. I'm determined not to turn this into a medical blog but as artists all experiences are grist for our mills.
My my, isn't it all interesting. Grind away, my friends. xo
PS Just a reminder that I'll be teaching a three day Sculpey intensive at Artful Journey Retreat in July. We will have lots of time to go deeply into sculptural issues as well as having the fun of playing together in clay. I'll bring my menagerie of sculptural dolls and share all my paint techniques there.
