W.I.P. "First Women"

 

Working on something new and different in the studio this week. As always, I delved too deeply into details. These were intended to be extremely primitive clay pieces, most likely with no facial features at all. But then.... I couldn't help but play. I have been working on some dark fairy tale/woodland type stories, and wanted to see if I could incorporate that. As I worked on this woodland witch, she didn't feel like a fairy tale witch. She felt like a woman. An ancient woman, who survived, who led, who was there when the gender roles began to unfurl. She was strong. Her daughters were strong too. She is refusing to die, though she is already beginning to return to the clay and the stars from which she came. She doesn't want to let go. She doesn't want her daughters, and their daughters get lost in the debris of all of the forgetting what they were capable of.  I feel she is with us still and whispering from the clay and the stars to remember.

A simple armature with foil.

Wrapped in masking tape, and stuck in foam packing material while I work on her.

Rough. Raw. Rugged. 
More detailed than I imagined. 
But this is the first of what I hope are many "First Women"
and other characters emerging from the clay.