Divine Inspiration

Most ideas that come to me don't ever really come. They're in the background and then I do some work and through the making I start to realise what I was trying to say. So last year when I was going to do some crazy parade one of the props I had to make was a ceramic baby. Easy enough, but while I was making the "baby" I decided to carve lots of details in to make the baby like Diana (Wonderwoman) which made more and more sense. One of the reasons Diana being made of mud is important is that it means she is an entirely female product, she owes nothing to any man. She is a woman without Daddy-issues.

And that's very intruiging for a young girl with abandonment issues, a woman who is unable to be abandoned. The whole idea changed to be about women without fathers, it was a wonderful project and I basically developed a whole new layer of interest and skill through doing that project. But it didn't really come from any solid idea to back it up, it made it's own idea, like a real baby.

And usually that's how it goes, but at the moment, I've been thinking. Shock horror! Because suddenly, playing with clay hasn't been the usual therapy it is and I've had to rely on more than self-analysis. So here's a massive list of images that have been helping me make some work.


Ibo bronze sculptures.

Oedipus und die Sphinx

Rossetti's Annunciation

Claire Curneen and the wonder that she is.

Abbott Handerson Thayer

Other things as well. Walking, walking past churches, the amazing Grayson Perry lecture I just went to (that desrves an entire blog all of it's own).

I have a review tomorrow, which means I should have all my work lined up for judgment, maybe I'll snap a couple of photos so you can join in with the constructive criticism.