manneke

preparing for a group exhibition in May, at last I got round to making my little clay guy, he was molded in one friend's studio, baked in yet another one's oven, finally he arrived in his box in my studio yesterday morning! one has to practice patience when dealing with clay!

I decided not to use the arms I'd made but instead turned to bones, inspired by GhostBird. He turned out quite different from what I had first imagined, much more make-do and raw

Manneke

little Man

or not so little when sitting in the old doll house

with a story to tell...

'He tells her as they lay on the pillow cuddled up together, as they gaze up at the stars, he tells her that what she sees is not there and even if they cannot quite grasp what that means, they get it.

He tells her life is not hard, in fact it is unbearably light and confesses that this fact too is something he has learnt from someone else. She nods as if to reassure him that that is okay.

None of us are truly original, we are all connected and go way back to where it all began, have travelled galaxies to get to where we are today she says, no wonder we forget where and when we collected our nuggets of knowledge stored away like acorns in the folds of our minds. They both ponder on this and simultaneously start batting their eyelids as tears well up, suddenly overcome by emotions that have no name. He wants to as does she, they both try to say out loud what it is that moves through them. Ha, she begins, hahaha, he adds and then they start to giggle and as so often happens the giggles become louder and louder and before they know what is happening, they are rolling all over the place and roaring, heaving even with laughter, and now tears are rolling down their cheeks and he nor she know quite what to make of them, sadness joy all of it. Panting and sniffling and chuckling they calm down once again, crawl back onto the pillow and as they gaze up at the moon and the stars, they drift off and fall asleep, into a world of dreams where they ride the nightskies like the heroes they like to imagine they are.' 

© saskia van herwaarden 2023

clay wool wire cloth bone button bead thread

I think I'm going to have to make a clay girl as well

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Friday we will say goodbye to Rachel @koudkunstje

a fellow traveller 

may she rest in peace

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