Clay and Hands and Time and Dreams...

         

It's surreal to be creating with this intensity again.  Seems a lifetime ago since I've done this, or even like another person created the memories that are in my head.  

There's nothing like it, really.  That almost trance-like place where magic seeps out from the tips of my fingers and little tools and pushes me through the dark, scary, unexplored places of my mind.  Sounds dramatic, because it is.  Drama is very core of this art form.

The current subject is shaping into face, The Snape's face, but the twist and turn of an overhung brow here or more pointed chin there shapes him into something mine.  He's a faun this time.  I crafted the twisted horns from wire and mache for the clay to wrap around when the time comes.  For now, it's perfecting that mouth. 

Working with this water base clay is the most sensual of arts because it's so tactile, involves so much feeling with the fingers, smoothing, creasing, molding that is an experience that leaves me fairly exhausted after  several hours.  It's intense, not unlike any other art form, yet differs greatly from many medias because of the 3-D intensity.  It's immediately striking and too organic.  Our minds process eyes of clay as not being real, but our emotions are stirred otherwise in a flash of recognition.  It's flesh...but not...but yet...

So, that's what I'll be working on for weeks to come.  Hopefully not longer than that, but I'm rusty, so it's going to take some time to get back in the game again.