Today I started work on the Morrigan statue. This will be a life-size sculpture in fiberglass, metal, and metal filler. When She's finished She will be installed at the shrine site that we have dedicated to the Morrigan here at Stone City, atop a cluster of five red-encrusted boulders on a lonely hilltop to the west of the Henge.
The vision for the statue is a life-size figure of the Great Queen, with arms outstretched, a spear in one hand and the other open as if speaking a prophecy. She wears a cloak that billows out to the sides and in front of Her. Her hair is loose and tumbling as if in the winds of war. Viewed from the back, Her hair forms the head of a great raven, whose wings spread out to either side forming the back side of the cloak. She's naked under the cloak, with Pictish symbols drawn on Her skin. Her body is strong, muscular, and beautiful, yet you see the shadow of a skeleton emerging from the surface of Her skin.
That's the vision - if I can pull it off. The sculpturing process is experimental for me, because I've done auto body work in the media that I'm using, but I've never tried using them to make a big statue. So I'm learning as I go. I began with a fiberglass mannequin and will build the sculpture out using that as a base. Today's work was to fix the arms in the forward position and spread them into a wide stance. Next stage, attaching wire cloth to form the basis for the cloak and hair.
This is, of course, a devotional work for me. Part of my process when I connect with the Gods is to do devotional art as a way of opening myself up to Their power. As I find inspiration about how the art work should look and feel, I learn things about Them; the creative process brings out an experiential understanding of Their iconography, and the numinous meanings contained within Their imagery. This will be the third in a series of devotional works I have done for the Morrigan. I began with a small altar statue (the one designed by Paul Borda), which I bought in the unfinished version and hand painted, about 10 years ago. The second work was an oil painting, which I believe there's an image of posted here, a multifaceted portrait. This statue will be the third work. I notice that they seem to be getting bigger every time... we'll see what She asks of me next, if I manage to complete this statue as I've imagined it.
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| Me, hugging the mannequin as I try to adjust it. |
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| The mannequin. |
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| Showing the alterations I made to spread the arms in a wider stance. |
