One of the lessons I learned very early in my art career was, don’t fall too in love with any piece of your art, especially the ceramic or glass pieces. I once spent weeks painting a beautiful ceramic vase, probably the most intricate ceramic painting I have ever done. And sure enough, it met its demise on a rainy day when a misaligned soccer ball (kicked by one of my sons) connected with it. Over the years there have been many other ill-fated pieces, things that cracked or broke during firing. I even had an oil painting of Lake Mission Viejo that fell off of the mantel  during an earthquake and landed on the fireplace screen, ripping a 3 inch whole on one side. After patching the tear,  I wrote the date of the
earthquake on the back. Two years later the exact thing happened again in another earthquake to the other side of the painting, now it has both dates on it!   I rarely, if ever, tried to recreate a broken piece,  that is until “Nadia”.
Last year when I created “Nadia” I was very excited about the finished product. I made her to sit on our deck, greeting  people as they walked along the brook side path to my studio. I broke my stead fast rule, I loved her. She had only been finished a few weeks when disaster struck. We will never know what really happened but one night in a heavy rain storm she was destroyed. The white glass was shattered, all the ceramic pieces broken and the base torn apart. I knew when I saw the mess the next morning, I would salvage as much as I could and remake her. For nearly a year she has been sitting in a box in  hundreds of pieces, today she is back on the deck, not exactly the same as before, but close enough to make me happy. The biggest difference is, this time she’s bolted down!
 
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Saturday, July 4, 2009
Remaking Nadia
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