Monday, March 31, 2008

Metaxu





































In my sophomore year at MECA I also took a sculpture class called The Expressive Figure with John Ventimiglia. The images here are of the sculpture I made for this class. It's a self-portrait based on a dream in which I awoke to find my right hand in the mouth and down the throat of a very large wolf like dog. In the dream I knew that the dog could hurt me but that it wouldn't. I named the sculpture Metaxu which means in between. For me the mouth of the dog is about the subconscious and the creative process. I have always felt that my creativity is a sort of hungry beast and there have been times in my life when I have felt quite afraid of it, to the point of ignoring it (and have subsequently become ill...).
I put the sculpture out in the woods a year ago August to make space in my studio, and just to see how it would change in the elements (losing art to fire has made me alot less precious about my work!)

I really like how it is disintegrating and how the head now looks like a cracked egg...


Metaxu, 2004
plaster, chicken wire, collage and acrylic

4 comments:

Rob S. said...

So interesting... It becomes a new piece every season! I love how it looks now, too: like an ancient relic, or a vestige of Pompeii.

Rob S. said...

BTW - love the Carlo quote! So apropos.

Don Gray said...

Like Rob S, my first thought was the plaster casts at Pompeii. Poignant and beautiful.

martha miller said...

thanks, rob and don:

i always loved those images from pompeii but hadn't thought about that connection. (imagine being stopped in your tracks by molten lava. yikes). say, you two gents might appreciate each others' work - hope that you've had a chance to visit each others' blogs!