Here we are again at the beginning of another month. Hope you enjoyed last month’s sculpture. Many of you sent me appreciative comments.
As a reminder, let me know if you have pieces you have seen in the past or on my website you would like me to feature in the future. If you have reactions about this month’s sculpture, please share them with me.
Rehearsal of Union
I picked this piece because it seems to inspire a yearning to reconnect with nature that we so seem to need to survive the climate crisis and our current unbalanced relationship with the natural world which has invited in COVID-2. We also have a sense now, because we wear masks everywhere, that we need to be careful who we connect with.
Like last month’s piece, its history also shows how typically my insights with these works occur over many years.The sketch was completed in November 1997 during a trip I took to Paris taken because I needed a break from my unsuccessful year long to get work my new environmental restoration business started. The sculpture was not completed until 2002 5 years later.
I share my original sketch below.
It was the first time I had been back to France since studying at the Université de Clermond Ferrand in the south 25 years previously. The trip was transformational for my environmental business. When I returned I almost immediately won a long-term contract and others subsequently followed.
I have always had a strong affinity with French culture and language. During this Paris trip, I would view art at different museums during the mornings and then sketch in a cafe in the afternoon. I discovered after I returned and started exploring the stories for this series of sculptures that their themes had been influenced by different modern art styles first created in Paris. This is a larger format piece which I had first started executing only the year before the trip as I developed techniques to prevent them cracking or exploding during the firing process.
This piece has a man dressed up in a sort of animal outfit apparently trying to converse with a bird and horse. He reminds me of a cross between a medieval jester, a Commedia dell’Arte character, and a Maurice Sendak figure from Where the Wild Things Are. The piece is called Rehearsal of Union because I believe the man is trying to reconnect with the natural world through the wisdom of the animals. The meeting is of course at night while the rest of humans sleep. What are your thoughts about this conversation?
