Today I made sculpture.
That is to say I sweated a lot, my muscles ache, I'm pretty sure I have a sliver of steel lodged in my left contact..........and I'm very happy.
Sculpting is hard work. It is mentally and physically exhausting and it's dirty. The salty sweat mixes with the fine particles of steel and small amounts of rust will actually form on your skin. The rogue sparks find their way into unprotected areas and sizzle when they make contact with flesh. It hurts. Almost as much as my back does after hunching over the workbench all day.
At times I'll look for reasons to not sculpt. I'll decide it's a quality time sort of day and I'll load Blue up for an adventure. Or I'll find myself unable to tolerate the height of the grass and I'll spend the day doing yard work. Or I'll see the forecast high temperature in the mid 90s and decide that what I really need to do is draw in the air conditioning.
But today I needed to sculpt so I forced myself into the basement shop and worked and sweated all day. And I loved every minute of it. As difficult and dirty as it is, I am drawn to it and I enjoy it. I don't think I can explain the feeling of absolutely knowing that this is exactly what I am supposed to be doing...but I felt that today.
I also felt the 1/4 inch sliver of steel I had to pull out of my big toe while Blue had his swimming lesson at the YMCA tonight. In fact, I still feel that.
I know the feeling Doug. I really miss having all of the availability of tools etc. from the Jewelry & Metals studio...I have gotten the cash together to build up my own studio at home finally though; figuring out how to keep our curious "helper" boy kitty out of my area has become the hardest problem...
ReplyDeleteI miss having green fingers from all of the copper imbedded in my skin and the reek of pickle on my hands. I miss the singing of the silver as I saw it, file it, or hammer it...and looking up at the clock and realizing that I've just spent 4hrs straight working on something an not knowing where the time went...my self induced medical hiatus is about over b/c I just can't stand the NEED to make anymore. I know you know exactly what I mean.