Asolas: work-in-progress

   1. Reading

    In May 2020, I began a series of terracotta sculptures with the working title, “Quarantine”.  It all began when I made a lifesize figure with a cat, reading, representing my  experience of adjusting to strict isolation. The solace of time in the studio helped me survive the frustration and worry of those first months.  I planned the next sculpture with the same iconography, a lone figure and a cat, and kept the natural terracotta surface.

    But at this point I noticed a tremendous number of other artists responding to the coronavirus with works entitled “Quarantine”. This was both funny and predictable. It pushed me to consider what personal aspects I wanted to address, with my series of

five sculptures, and proved a fruitful investigation.

     I chose to call the series “Asolas", meaning alone.  As always I started by looking at etymology: Asolas  in Spanish means alone in the sense of undertaking a journey, task or adventure.  I also read about how the archaic Irish (ancient Gaelic) word solas meant moving toward the light, and I thought about solace, the English homonym for solas.

    These definitions combined brought meaningful ideas and provide inspiration as I work through my solitary journey toward the light.

Preliminary sketches:

Left: Seated figure w book, cat and coffee.

Right: Detail of sleeping cat with book. 

Left center: work in progress

Right center: figure at the table

Left bottom: partly assembled

Right bottom: table fully assembled.