This Thorny Path

"She Said This Thorny Path has Grace Written All Over It"
Copper, brass, enamel, nickel silver, tintype, mixed media
17 x 15 x 4"

I suspect we all bring everything that happens to us into our own lives. Certainly I like this concept in my own life when the good stuff comes to me. When the less attractive things make their way in (events, sickness, accidents, etc) it is much harder to look it right in the eye and welcome it as some challenge that I'm throwing my own way. Somedays I think, enough with the learning already. And yet, in hindsight it does open my eyes.

This piece is about that.

I found a tin type several months back of a little girl that I just loved. It was a bit blurred which I felt captured her spirit more than anything. And there was an innocence too.

It wasn't until I had it in my studio that I also noticed that her left hand was quite deformed. I couldn't help but have the uncomfortable thought that she perhaps brought this into her own life - for some reason. Who knows. Yet I also had an overwhelming thought that the whole lifetime path that she took with that hand offered up many (yes, unpleasant, but) eye opening moments. It is odd, but it made me feel this sort of kinship with her. It's that old, old positioning of sting and grace side by side.