P.Wharton.

A Series of antiquity.  Sparks of a classical aesthetic 2

Two sisters

 

Motherhood

A good friend, Marcia once asked me why don’t I create a work dedicated to my mother as it was her faith that had fuelled so many of my works in the past. I’d always thought of the works as a kind of dedication in themselves.

 

So I thought. And thought. And thought some more. So much came to mind I was overwhelmed. Then I thought as the child I once was.

 

As a child, I was always digging something up. Making stuff.  Inventing. Returning home wet and muddy from a childhood expedition with a fatally damaged utensil or two appropriated from mum’s kitchen drawer.

 

It’s only now that I’ve come to realise just how much freedom I had without ever being aware she was always somewhere in the sidelines watching out for me. I guess that’s true freedom. Isabella. My mother. 

 

Bastet (Bast) is the symbolic embodiment of that motherhood, hence dedicating the two sisters to my mother. And her sister, Connie. 

 

I especially like this article in the Washington Post on motherhood by Maggie Dawn. It reminds me of myself  as a child.

 

Washington Post. 
Defining motherhood
by Maggie Downs

"I’d like to tell you what motherhood means to me, except it’s challenging to sit at my desk while my pockets are full of rocks.

In the four years I have spent as a mom, that’s what I’ve become: I am the rock holder. My pockets are heavy with rocks. Rocks sag in my backpack. They clunk in my coat.

My son finds these rocks and urges me to have them, slips them into my good purse, sweetens the deal with crumbling leaves, an array of sticks, wildflowers, the occasional cicada shell.

He gives me the world. Or tries to."

— Maggie Downs 

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/style/wp/2019/05/09/feature/the-protector-the-multitasker-the-holder-of-rocks-10-moms-define-motherhood/

 


Two sisters


EGYPTIAN MUSEUM

Bastet (Bast)

“Cats were very important to the ancient Egyptians and were even considered to be demi-deities. Not only did they protect the crops and slow the spread of disease by killing rodents, they were also thought to be the physical form of the goddess Bastet."

 

Bastet had the Head of a cat and  the body of a female and  was believed to be a protector of women and children from disease and illness.   A symbol  of fertility and pregnancy.  A Protector of the home along with many other things. 


Two sisters 

Cast in a Terracotta and Iron pigment concrete slurry. 
Not suitable for outdoors.  

 

Terracotta weight 3.066 kg

W 30cm H 30cm D20cm

 

Iron/black 2.807 kg 

W 30cm H30cm D20cm

 

 

Additional information.

Originally this piece was meant to be just one figure cast in a black slurry mix of Portland cement. The terracotta piece was produced as a test piece to iron out the vacuum process of casting.  On Placing these figures together it became immediately apparent they belonged together.  Inseparable.  Much like my mother and her sister had became. Hence, Two Sisters. Two mothers.  As for which is which I’m not sure. They were much of a likeness.  Much of a kindness. 
 

Two Sisters. 2024

By P Wharton.

 

 

On Reflection. Menrfa

 

For some time now I have been taken by a character I happened upon (via YouTube ramblings) named Menrfa.  By all accounts, the Etruscan Goddess of wisdom and the arts. This sparked the works,  Menrfa, on reflection.

 

Every Shadow and angle of her serenity is so deeply layered, and perhaps reflective. This  was something  I'd neither planned or worked upon.  It just happened. She has been a real lady throughout this  process of discovery.

 

So taken by her,  I decided to make three, and by incidental arrangement they took on a dialogue between themselves. And it’s this exact arrangement in the piece entitled On Reflection. Menrfa. 

 

Like myself in the artwork Hope’s Last Call, and On Reflection, Menrfa also reflects back on the narrow perspectives of her younger self in relation to the vast, well-lived-in ones she now inhabits. An internal dialogue seemingly poles apart. And explores the arts to convey those perspectives.  The experience of wisdom. 

 

Throughout my life I have gathered many experiences of wisdom. The internet is full of them.  But these snippets of wisdom are now in danger of becoming junk food. An effortless quick fix to get us through. We gorge on them and become obese with cliche. And we learn nothing of our place in the world beyond our wants.  

 

To better understand yourself through the world, confront your place in the world beyond that of your wants.  The universe is as vast inwardly thinking. So expand within.  Express through the arts. And be kind. 

 

The making of  On Reflection. Menrfa

Medium/Fibreglass/plywood.

Approximately/W56cm/H27cm/D21cm

 


Menrfa

 

As the three busts of Menrfa (above) became one piece collectively entitled On ReflectionI set out to make another single piece simply entitled Menrfa. And liked this so much I set out to create the larger piece ( further down the page ) entitled, The last day of winter. 

 

Menrfa


 

Medium/polished Portland cement.

Approximately/W10cm/H20cm/Depth9cm

Weight 1.083kg

 

The last day of winter. Menrfa. 2020


Apex.
The keystone plaque of Menrfa bears the leafless branch of winter. And marks the last day of winter. The point at which light breaks through and we who are here gather up our loss and reach forward.


I recall in my youth walking in the woods with my uncle Geoff noting how beautiful the autumn leaves looked. And his reply was something like,   I was once like you, but beauty fades amidst loss and grief.  Although this piece is of the approaching spring, it's a tribute to both him and his words on that sunny autumn day. 
 

Uncal Geoff Dawson. Artist, musician and poet. 


 

Medium/polished Portland cement. Approximately/W25cm/H38cm/D15cm