CHILDHOOD'S GHOST
stoneware, indiana limestone,
spanish black marble,
brazilian white marble, pigment
21"high x 6"x 4½"
CHILDHOOD'S GHOST began as the found piece of jagged limestone that supports the shelf. The piece resided on a prominent shelf in the studio for about twelve or thirteen years - moving around as I placed other things on the shelf but never quite resolving itself into an idea of what to do with it.
Finally I decided to make the shelf using a piece of negro marquina that I cut and polished into a modified semi-circle. I hung the shelf on a wall in the studio, and within minutes had started placing things on it just to see what they would look like.
One of them was the white stoneware version of a face I had made five or six years ago as part of my mask series. I mounted the face on the white marble, then mounted this assembly on the black marble shelf. The face was toned away from the pure white of the original stoneware.
It took several weeks until I could put the words together for the title to suggest what the piece represented from the natural mountain-like ridge of limestone to the geometric black and white marble forms upon which rests the uptilted child's face with the empty-eyes.
