Children of war

The Child Among Debris

17″ x 14″ x 7″

Steel, art board, paint

Today’s news documents in word and image the bombings in war torn countries. Neighborhoods are leveled and thousands of families displaced. Tonight’s news was about Gaza. It is said that the number of children murdered exceeds the number of combatants.

All week I found myself cutting and welding together dozens of small squares to form a web of sorts in the shape of a ball. Using a laser I cut out the image of a child with outstretched arms, one hand holding flowers, the other a bird. I placed that image within the rounded ball that I had made. Then crushed it. This sculpture, a child among debris, is result. I find it striking.

John Lewis

John Lewis, a man of depth, few words, and an enduring love

Ceramic, bronze colored glaze,

17″w x 12″h x 9″d

With the heavy metal workshops in the area closed by COVID, I worked daily for months on end in our garage-turned-ceramic-studio to sculpt this piece. The experience was a gift.

Beyond Forever

“Beyond Forever.”

Ceramic, bronze glazed doves, steel base

9″ x 9″ x 8″

This was a commissioned piece to celebrate the wedding anniversary of a long married couple. Years ago the client had engraved on her husband’s wedding ring “beyond forever.” Today that sentiment lives.

When asked what kind of sculpture she had in mind, she wrote, “two ceramic doves sitting side by side with the caption Beyond Forever.”

“Why doves?” I asked.

“I love seeing my husband watch the antics of the doves as he sits quietly under our portal. Just don’t make the doves white sentimental ones that you see on wedding cakes or invitations. I want birds that are sweet and puffy and have some personality.”

“Do you want a sculpture that is abstract or one that is more realistic? I attached images of both possibilities.

This is the piece that was sculpted.

I enjoyed making this commision. It has a meaning for the couple hidden from the causal observer. That, for me, is what sculpture is all about…a way to express what is not easily seen.

Boxed No Longer

Steel, paper, plasticine, acrylic,
12″w x 12″d x 14″h,

Held as if in a box? Hindered by the glass ceiling? Not this woman. The image is of a mature person, anything but idealized … strong, firmly planted, forward looking, standing among broken glass.

A Contemporary Eve

“A Contemporary Eve”

12″h x 4”w x 3”d
Ceramic

In the Hebrew and Christian scriptures Adam and Eve were forbidden to eat the fruit from the tree of knowledge. For whatever reason, they did. Shame followed and they searched to cover themselves. Who has not seen classic paintings and sculptures of Adam and Eve with their genital areas hidden by fig leaves?

The Islamic scriptures have a similar story of the transgression. However after the Fall, as Adam and Eve searched for leaves to cover themselves, the Muslim tradition has it that God enjoined them to cover themselves with a vail of modesty, not greenery.

I have tried to sculpt this Eve to embody that tradition. Her arms are raised and her head is thrown back as if unafraid to be seen. While the vail is modest it accents the fact that she is undeniably a woman.

Rohingya woman

“Rohingya Woman”

17″h x 8”w x 7”d
ceramic

Why, a friend asked, do you sculpt so many women who seem sad?

I did not know that I had. With this piece, suggestive of a Rohingya migrant, I did not intend to sculpt a sad person. While her clothes are tattered, her bearing suggests beauty. She cradles an injured bird. Poor in coin she is rich in care. The same is true for many women the world over … whatever tragedy or misfortune they endure. She is but a symbol.

John Baptist De La Salle

“The Work is Yours”

12” x 8” x 6”
ceramic NFS
bronze

John Baptist De La Salle was a French priest taken by the needs of disadvantaged youth. Born to privilege, he dared to establish schools for poor children. The work led him to inspire young men to join him in the work. To gain their trust he relinquished his 17th century family status, distributed his wealth, moved in with the men and called them Brothers. Together they bloomed into a worldwide community who–until recently–numbered over eighteen thousand men educating tens of thousands of youngsters, largely the poor and underserved. For thirty years I was one of those men. While now married for a quarter century, the Brothers influenced my life in remarkable ways. In turn, they have also influenced my life as a ceramic artist. This sculpture is of the man before he died. It mirrors his tiredness as well as depth of character.

James Baldwin

James Baldwin

12″ x 13″ x 8″

“Not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced.”

James Baldwin. A remarkable man. Intelligent, insightful, a master of recognizing human foibles, black, gay, educated, sophisticated, an artist in word and style.

“It is easy to proclaim all souls equal in the sight of God; it is hard to make men equal on earth in the sight of men.”

The Dancing Goddess

13″h x 7″w x 5″d

Sculpted following a visit to the Chrysler Museum of Art in Norfolk Virginia

Homage to Quilters

HOMAGE TO QUILTERS

21″h x 15″w x 15″d

Ceramic

My wife is a quilter, one of well over a hundred women and men belonging to the Northern New Mexico Quilting Guild. You might think of them as a stay-at-home old fashion group of people content to sew and gossip. Wrong. They are an involved, aesthetically sensitive, socially minded, and diverse group of caring artists. In fact you can find organized quilting guilds in towns and cities across the country.

Earlier this year I attended the weekend gathering of 123 National Guard soldiers who recently returned from service abroad. They were being debriefed and informed about issues they would face returning home. It was heartening to be among them as an observer.

As part of their homecoming, Guild members made a handmade personalized “Quilts of Valor” for each veteran. They were awarded as the last activity of the weekend. To say that the soldiers were appreciative is to understate the obvious.

As I was leaving the hotel, I stopped in the washroom to ready myself for the trip home. Two soldiers were talking. “How was it?” one fellow asked the other. “OK. Better than I thought.” How’s that?” “It was those quilts. They made everything worthwhile.”

I didn’t say a word yet the image of those two highly tattooed muscular shaved head uniformed men cradling their quilts has stayed with me. Their experience awakened within me a desire to pay homage to quilters.

My sculpture is highly cracked. Following the Japanese tradition of artfully mending broken pots by filling the cracks with golden fill, I did the same. The result was striking. No wonder some potters were accused of breaking pots simply to enhance their value!

If you are not familiar with quilting as an art, click on the Gee’s Bend Quiltmaker’s website at www.soulsgrowndeep.org/gees-bend-quiltmakers.