You’ve seen this image here – Illuminance, and a hint of it here – Weekly Recap: December 12 – 18. Even so, I haven’t actually spoken about it. So this is how I attempted to conceptually represent a clinging to childhood.
Finding the Meaning as I Go
“Artists often have good reason to avoid inquiring too closely into motive and purpose – especially while they’re in the midst of working…When it comes to making art, our intuition is often light-years ahead of our intellect.”
– Ted Orland, The View from the Studio Door
I’ll have a portfolio page up of these images soon. I already have one in my drafts. But I feel like there may actually be something here, something worth being seen in a space with a wider audience, something I believe in. So while this series is in flux, I’m going to let it live in these blog posts alone.
What’s Seen Within
Half the frame, an adult figure reaches up to an oversize horse. In her hand are some pink petals, the only colorful item in the frame. Dried flowers sit below, some falling away. On the other half of the frame sits a porcelain doll with scattered pebbles on the floor below. In the center, a hand reaches down to grab the horse and take it away.
Clinging to Childhood
We all do, and should, cling to childhood in some form or another. But life sometimes rips that away from us, anywhere from a slow peel, to a devastating blow.
So here the porcelain doll represents a child, but also a form of toy I personally loved as a child, the tiniest of tiny victorian porcelain dolls. The pebbles are crumbling bits of the porcelain, or of childhood. I would go to Dollar General with my maternal grandmother and she’d buy me $1 porcelain dolls. Each was about 5 inches tall. I still have them. This one I found recently at a flea market. She’s about 3 inches tall and was also $1. I was so immediately enamored.
The flowers, both pink and white, I have for resin crafting. Their colors and vividness are immediately useful in representing liveliness v. fading away.
The horse serves as a representation of a hobby horse, or maybe even the 2 Breyer horses I got from Tuesday Morning around the age of 9 or 10. I’d never owned any Breyer Horses, and these ones were small and came with figures including a glittery dragon and princess. Don’t worry, I still have these also.
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