Commissioned Bust

A friend of a friend asked me if I might be able to do a plaster cast for a brilliant woman about to undergo double mastectomy reconstructive surgery. This proposed ritual was intended as a ceremonious adieu and record of the pleasure her breasts had been during her life. The subject and I met the day before her surgery. With plaster strips and camera in hand we became fast friends. In her learning of my sculptural work, she commissioned me to embellish, or re-cover, her plaster cast occurring in tandem with her recovery.

Each bead, laid with intention, felt like a contribution to her healing on a cellular level, and the piece now installed is a radiant artifact symbolic her extraordinary beauty and artful resilience.