the brain of the day…
16th century anatomical drawing of the brain
Today as we were leaving clay class with Tom, he said, “I want all your work to come from the heart of darkness.” And I asked, “What about the liver of twilight?”
I thought, but didn’t say at the time, the completer of the triad, “The brain of the day.” Interesting: the immediate expressions of distaste from some of the other students at the mention of liver.
Still, I really enjoyed the play of analogies. I went to internal organs in the class itself, since the wedding vessel I had in mind to craft for a renewal of vows with Sefla took a rather larger shape than I had imagined, and at one point I thought to make it resemble the dual chambers of a physical heart.
But the end result of the piece was to create a hand, reaching up from below the vessel. I called it “the hand of God” at one point, and tried in my mind to say “hand of the goddess,” but since I’d modelled it so closely on my own mangled left hand, it had none of the feminine qualities I would want to see in her hand, so it had to remain an image of his. Not the romantic piece I’d imagined creating when the idea of making a South American two-chambered wedding vessel for the renewal of our vows came to me at the prior class…
Currently serving as Associate Director for Technology Integration with the Central California Writing Project (CCWP), part of UCSC's Department of Education. I'm a social justice advocate, web pioneer, and digital storytelling enthusiast. I'm also an arts education activist and a string game expert.
