In an attempt to focus on the CAN DOand not on the CANT'S, I photographed my completed piece for The Chair Affair 2010. She is aptly entitle "Pieces of the Past." I am faced with a cancelled surgical date for my wrist and anxiously awaiting the rescheduled date, to say the least. I am trying to hold it together, leaving pieces of the past behind, moving forward with the new, but with the inability to let go of memories and experiences from the past, be they positive or negative. Memories are something we carry with us. It is not a choice. Creating the chair has been therapeutic for my spirit but painful for my hand. I am glad she is completed. I feel a sense of satisfaction that I was able to complete her and pour my pent up creative juices into her to the best of my ability and to try to accept that being enough. She is, what she is. The chair I began with is old. She feels broken, lost, left behind. The chair is collaged with handmade paper I bought, that reminded me of days gone by, possibly another era, another place. I then used the chair as a place to land. I patched her up, added worn, rusted, found and collected elements. I created an assemblage of things I have found and collected that conjure memory, partly for me and partly for some other fictitious life. There is a sadness about her. She has a sense of completion for me, yet a sense of possibility, of waiting for someone, something, to arrive.
I sit with her........I sit..........I wait...........I become her..............
I am a collaborator with nature, often using found objects in my clay sculpture. My greatest inspiration is my motherhood and nature. Working with clay is a tactile, spiritual interaction. It's a dance as the image emerges and takes on a life form of its own. The story gradually reveals itself and not always upon completion of the piece. It is a gradual unfolding.... "What the caterpillar thinks is the end of the world...the butterfly knows is only the beginning!"
I keep my spirit vitalized by creating mixed media sculpture, sculptural drawings, exploring narrative photography, writing, participating in collaborative art projects, volunteering for various Portland organizations, walking in the woods and along the Oregon coast collecting the next sculpture inspiration that nature offers me, enjoying the solitude of the Lake in Washington, kayaking, camping, snorkeling in Hawaii, making my voice heard as a quiet activist for various humanitarian issues, appreciating live theater and music in Portland and enjoying the vastly rich life that Oregon has to offer me, but especially spending time with my family. I am savoring my new journey as I explore the middle road of Buddhism. I try to live an "intentional life" every day with "Jo Y"! I feel like a square peg who has finally found her square hole!
1 comment:
It's a great photo....I like the closeup. She exudes patience and wisdom.
I can hardly wait to meet your chair in person.
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