Dreamer

This is a ceramic piece that i made a few years ago.   Looking back, it was a lot of work but it was worth it.   Each wishbone was hand carved from a solid block of clay that I had pounded into a mold.   I remember enjoying the process of packing the clay into the molds, letting them dry a few days and then using a steak knife and a potato peeler to shave away slivers of moist clay until all that was left was a wishbone.   Carving and handling the moist clay really allowed me to feel connected to the material, it was a very rewarding experience.   I felt the same way when I was carving stone and wood.    

I included this sculpture in my BFA show but because of space limitations it was hung against a wall which was not the ideal place for this piece.   Because of it's height and location, it wasn't possible to get a good picture of it during the show.   Outdoors was where I originally envisioned this piece.    I wanted it to look as though it were an endless ladder reaching up into the sky... an invitation to explore, to search, to look for answers; I wanted the unbelievable, if only for a second, to be believable.   Once again, like my cannon piece, this sculpture became a "prop" to tell a story.   It became an installation rather then an "object".   The picture and the location tells more then the ladder could ever do by itself hanging in a gallery.   I think in a way I'm drawn to the childlike "realness" of this... if that makes sense.   As a kid, like most kids, I dreamed of "digging a hole to China" or "if i ran fast enough I could fly" and "if I built a ladder tall enough I could reach the stars".   It's that childlike "faith" that I'm interested in.   When we are kids we believe with all our hearts that the world is full of magic, that anything is possible if we simply believe it is.   We believe this until we learn or we're told otherwise.   As we get older and supposedly "wiser" we discover the "man behind the curtain", "the real truth", clouds are just clouds, stars are just stars and places we were told existed really don't exist.  But one can still dream... right?!