The re-creation of scleroderma

It was very important for me to recreate this piece and use it as a concrete symbol of forgiveness and release.  The past sculpture (pictured above) made about five years ago was called scleroderma after the debilitating disease my mother had.  The work of art depicted someone with bad skin who was in agony, I put the goddess symbol on her chest… I do not recall why nor why the hair was bright blue, but I used both of these as catalysts for the new piece.

The new piece is the enlightened version of the former.  She is healthy, her body is full and soft, her face is not strained.  The right hand’s position is intact, but the offering in the other has been eliminated.  The head was kept looking upward and slightly cocked to her left; the legs are still crossed though more loosely.  I changed the color of the piece simply for the sake of having the drawing show up on her better.  The texture is stone-like, ironically since scleroderma is Latin for “stone skin” so the piece still can be called scleroderma, but it represents healing instead of suffering, it is my mother whole and healthy again, its her spirit disease free and its also me letting go of the whole situation which is why I wrote on her back, “forgive, release” and  “let go.”

The pattern on the figure is extremely important.  I have always thought but never stated that the figures are mostly female, not because it is easier to sculpt women or because I prefer to make them, but simply because they are not women, they are goddesses.  I believe I have tapped into some of the earliest forms of worship and appreciation which was for the female deities and qualities of nature as caregiver, child bearer, and giver of love.  Instead of merely copying the symbol, I took its shape and flipped it on the computer, repeated it, and printed it out… pictures are included here so you can see.  I took that pattern that formed and used it to paint onto the figure, after that was done, stripes were painted on one side, creating a asymmetrical composition for the whole work.  The stripes represent the wild side, and the plain side represent her “tame” side and the duality of the human spirit.