EGG OF THE BLACK MADONNA

Posted on October 27, 2014 by jane

Price: SOLD

Details:

An original dyed and gold gilded burlwood sculpture of a Black Madonna that opens.  Please read the story of it’s creation below.

Dimensions:

41x12x12

Information:

Intriguing, would sum up this wooden original sculpture.  Beginning with the creation in wood of LOVING EMBRACE, which piece was molded and cast into bronze.
Upon its return from an exhibit, I felt that the shape of the mother and child form should be softer, gentler and more rounded in form and shape, more motherly, feminine.
I attached it to my craving block and began by taking small bits of the hard edged crystal like base away with a small chainsaw.  The piece began to take on an egg like form and that felt so right, the egg of the mother becoming the child in time and space.  As I was nearing the final shape, the piece began to tremble and I dropped the saw, with one arm holding the wood, as it split in half and catching the falling side, I became stunned as the natural split in the burl, wrapping itself around the carved shape, with that one last cut had rendered the piece in half.
BUT, what came to view inside the motherly maple burl was a small , tiny tree, with roots into the mother burl and a trunk reaching up and out into limbs that at one time had been forging their way out of the crevice in the wood, to the sunlight.  This child tree was birthing from within the mother tree.
I finished the form with rounded shapes and sanded it smooth and figured how to hinge the piece so that it could open up to reveal the inner child.  Then it took me over 2 years of experimenting with pedestals to find a way to support the sculpture and yet be able to take it off the pedestal and open it up.  This was a major project.  Finally I came to the results shown in this final work.  The wooden base was from a tree in my work shop and the forged iron holding rods were formed by a local blacksmith.  The final pieces were dyed and red paint and strings, with 23 karat gold leaf configuring into the final look.
Thus was born my created work, EGG OF THE BLACK MADONNA.

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