Maria
Works of art arise from both human and divine activity.
Friedrich Hölderlin
height 68 cm, width 36 cm, depth 48 cm
Keeping in mind my ambition to make each new sculpture I create the most beautiful, I started work on my most recent, life-size sculpture Maria in April 2023.
After pounding a total of 150 kilograms of clay onto my worktable with as little air entrapment as possible, I worked out piece by piece the shape of the seated girl, for whom a friend’s four-year-old daughter had patiently modelled (sat) in front of my camera. Based on the resulting photos, step by step the life-like statue (sculpture) Maria, with a total height of 68 cm, emerged.
Because the clay I worked with shrinks 10% in the kiln, the sculpture initially had to be 10% larger than the original dimensions of my friend’s daughter, which I had noted during the photoshoot. Sitting on her knees, my adorable model had a total height of 68 cm. Adding 10% gives 75 cm – coincidentally exactly the maximum height that would fit in my kiln.
The most challenging part of designing the sculpture was that I only had a little less than two months to complete it. My client wanted to give it to his wife for their 35th wedding anniversary and, of course, that date could not be postponed.
My client, who had already purchased the sculpture Balance from me a few months earlier at the Floriade in Almere, chose the following design from three unique drafts: A little girl sitting on her knees curiously and interestedly looking up at a snail slowly crawling up the trunk of a tree. Upon completion, my client christened the sculpture ‘Wonderment’.
I myself was amazed that I actually managed to complete the sculpture within the two months. After all, modelling the sculpture out of clay is only the first step – the sculpture then has to be cut into several pieces, hollowed out and reassembled at the end.
The drying process then takes at least two weeks before the sculpture can be fired at 980° C and then glazed in the spray booth. This is followed by the glaze firing at a temperature of 1240° C.
With a sculpture this large, there is a certain risk that the sculpture would crack during firing – especially at such high temperatures. Fortunately, everything went well – although in retrospect, I don’t know how I survived the two months of working non-stop seven days a week to meet the desired deadline.
About three weeks before completion, after the sculpture had already been sculpted in detail in clay on my table, I often worked very close to the sculpture, with my face very close to the sculpture’s face. And suddenly I felt that the sculpture carried the energy of my daughter Maria, whom I had unintentionally lost during pregnancy a few years ago.
I was amazed! Had I unconsciously incorporated my daughter’s energy into the sculpture, or had my soulmate Maria accompanied me through the sculpture during my working process?
The crazy thing was that my little daughter Maria would have been exactly 4 years old at the time the sculpture was made, had she not left me much earlier.
Anyhow, I could definitely feel her energy in my sculpture, which is why I named it after her – in addition to the wonderful title Wondering, of course, which my client later chose for her.