LINEAGE
'Red Raku' The Line Chosen
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Why this clay and oxide?
For its earthy, glowing vibrance, dark glistening surfaces, rough texture, speckles of light that have been gently washed to the surface, its ease to build with, and its reliability and strength.
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This is the original clay I started working with when I began to sculpt again, it feels ancient, like an artifact dug up after centuries underground. I can easily imagine the clay containing the bones and flesh of the ancestors.
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My measurements are contained within all of these women, yet each is unique. Just as my hands, my face, my body, my her-story, my bones, my DNA contains all of my ancestors, so too are my own personal measurements contained within each Womb Woman of this lineage.
Using, for example, the height of ‘floor to elbow’, the length of the ‘outside lower arm’, ‘shoulder tip to tip’, ‘wrist width’, I created a map and starting point, a building frame upon which I could flesh out each woman, with their own beauty and quirks.
This feels similar to DNA, our own blueprint and code of instructions, though which we experience being alive, fleshing out our own living story.
As I build each woman, big or small, I ask “so dear one, what is your life story? What would you like to say? So beautiful one how shall I build the line of your back? How big would you like your belly? Perhaps you are carrying twins? What angle would you like your head? I see your right shoulder is held higher than your left, I wonder what story you are holding there. Each woman contains the same blueprint, then takes on a life of her own.
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Every woman contains the power of her own story. Collectively, the powerful story of womankind becomes heard.
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“Within the DNA is written not only our histories as individuals but the whole history of the human race … patterns of DNA that have come down to us virtually unchanged from our distant ancestors – ancestors who are no longer just an abstract entity but real people who lived in conditions very different from those we enjoy today, who survived them and brought up their children.”
~ Bryan Sykes (The Seven Daughters of Eve)
“As always, the stories show us the way. The old stories, the ones which tell us that women are the land, the body of the Earth. The old stories, the ones in which the Earth is sacred, and so women are sacred too: the force of creation, the givers of life.”
~ Sharon Blackie (If Women Rose Rooted)