BLIND CLEAN

Willow Tree Surrounded By Love Figurine, Susan Lordi 26233

Willow Tree Surrounded By Love Figurine - Abundant love surrounds you. Girl smelling flower bouquet. Resin, 5" high. Comes gift boxed. Since 2000, Susan Lordi has been creating these figurative sculptures that speak in quiet ways of deep emotion and inspiration. Artist Susan Lordi carves each original sculpture, then pieces are cast from her original carving in resin and individually painted by hand. Expression is conveyed by gestures only - a tilt of the head, a turn of the body, or placement of the hands. The simplicity of form and the absence of facial features signify Willow Tree. Emotions are left to the viewer to interpret, which makes them powerful and personal. It is Susan Lordi's hope that these pieces be meaningful to both the giver and the receiver.

I was attending a seminar in Talisay, Batangas about 11 years ago when I saw this framed image in my room (it was a 2 .... day live in seminar) which I found really beautiful.

The image was that of a pencil sketch of the Madonna and Child.

I took a picture of it using my AE-1 Canon film camera and a tripod. I had it converted from a negative to a positive slide, used the slide a couple of times then I kept it among my old stuff.

The other day we did some summer cleaning. I saw my old and dusty Kodak film scanner along with a whole bunch of film and decided to check if the scanner still worked. And it still did!

Then I saw the slide. It was in very bad condition. I scanned it, post processed it and this (above) is that image.

If you take a look at this image up close you will be able to see a lot of dust marks and scratches that the slide had accumulated over the years. I decided to leave some of the dust and scratches on the image, giving it an 'aged' look (which it really was .... aged, I mean).

As I was working on the slide, certain memories persistently popped into my head about a TV program .... or more precisely credit trailers of a show where people were throwing and destroying porcelain or plaster images of my Lady to the floor. It was a religious TV program, definitely not catholic. The figurines were breaking into pieces in slow motion. It didn't bother me then. I was not really a very religious man.

That was a long time ago ... that TV show. Now .... I realize that I find myself disturbed. Feelings of hurt and disbelief surfaced while I was working on the image. I asked myself .... how can people so attack and show such disrespect to the mother of Jesus while preaching His (Jesus) words ?

I could not grasp the veil of ignorance or spite or hate this people had in their minds for the Mother of the Man they worshipped.

These were the times when new 'religions' where cropping up left and right each proclaiming exclusivity to redemption via their path. And all of them strongly criticizing prevailing (then) catholic traditions ... most notably, the filipino's devotion to the Lady.

The song that they sang was that we have replaced Jesus with Mary as the center of our devotion and they played this tune over and over to devastating effect. Their respective memberships grew and our Lady lost people who loved her though I like to think , it was only my Lady who lost, for I believe she still loved them, those who have turned away from her.

My love for her remains strong.

And this does not take away anything from my faith in her son , Jesus our brother and Lord. She has been manifesting herself for decades across the world, sending us her messages and her warnings. She never tires. She never hold grudges. She treats us like her children .... the faithless and spoiled brats that we are. Always forgiving .... admonishing .... worrying in much the same way as our biological mothers worry about us. And more .... even.

Tirelessly. Unconditionally.

Religion is like politics. It's a topic that is much like the proverbial hot potato to talk or write about. And that is why I almost (well.... i give in to my baser instincts occasionally ... hehe) never talk or write about it.

Until this image happened along.

I will do anything for my Lady.


Cheers !


Jojo A

Porcelain bratz. I took their wigs off for my avantguard dolls. They look good bald. :-)