BORN FROM STONE
“I hate my father, he often beats my mom"
A six-year-old boy told me,
And a twelve-year-old girl said
"My mom was a prostitute, she passed away, my dad has had many lovers",
In the moments listening to them, my heart was not as calm as their eyes.
Family is the land in which all trees take root,
But not every father can be a mountain of wisdom,
Not every mother can be a river of love,
And not every brother, sister can be the air of joy,
Having someone to admire, to follow, to lead us in life seems so precious.
That emptiness may cause many years of loss,
It may make us the same as the things we hate,
But with our tolerance and compassion for this life,
We can be the tree growing up from the stone,
Using our existence to prove the opposite - the beauty of life.
- LV -
This poem I wrote based on my experience and reflection when I volunteered for a NGO which support disadvantaged children. Then I had an urge to make a sculpture to express my feelings for the little girls and boys I had met there. I could not follow up to see how they got on in their lives, but I wish they will receive more love and compassion from many people that could heal their inner pain and lead them in the right direction and a less sorrow life.
From the poem, I developed the concept and the structure for the sculpture. It is symbolic and shows a tree growing on the stone by itself and connecting with a fetus inside the stone. I made a quick sketch by pencil to visualise it.
I made the sculpture with white clay. First I took the fundamentals of the sketch to make the structure.
Then developed it more with other aspects to make it a complete 3D artwork. Here is final sculpture showing the different angles.
The clip of clay sculpture.
I glazed colors for the sculpture then burnt in wood-fired kiln. The glazed colors are not as I wanted, but it was a good learning experience for me.
The sculpture “Born from Stone” was chosen with the sculpture “The Persistence of Dali” for an art exhibitions at the Fine Arts Association in Ho Chi Minh city, Vietnam on August 2017.
I’m happy that more people saw this sculpture and hope you like the story and concept of it.
If you like sculpture, you can see more of my work here:
HAND IN HAND
The Persistence of Dalí
FLY WITH ME
MOTHER SEA
Thank you all for taking time to read this post, I hope you enjoyed it. It gives me great joy to be able to share my experiences with you all, exclusively here on the Steem blockchain. ❤
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