Understanding Ana

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 Understanding Ana

12 x 9.5 cm framed, soda lime glass and enamel

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Understanding Ana is comprised of two pieces of glass each 8.5cm x 6cm x 3mm in size. Each piece of glass a separate idea inspired by two very different memories of my mother.  These are not new ideas. They are concepts I have already been using in other pieces but they come together here in a new way for me. 

For example, the background piece of glass includes a floral pattern symbolic of both my mothers passion for gardening and her fine filigree crochet work. This is representative of my mother's creative side. I began using imagery inspired by my mothers crochet when asked to do a piece for the SAVA Gallery show the Art of Family which opened in May of 2009.  Since then these images have continued to show up in pieces like My Mother's Garden and some clear glass functional work. In Understanding Ana this imagery is hidden behind a layer of clear glass. The texture of the granular imagery visible but not accessible to the touch.
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The foreground layer of clear glass contains a random segment of text taken from a piece of prose I wrote after driving to work on a cold winter morning. The text was carved from the glass using sandblasting techniques and back-filled with black enamel before firing. It was written after a moment of epiphany. For the first time I felt I really understood a certain aspect of my mother, her sadness. For that moment I could truly empathize. On the glass the words are run together, no capitalization, no punctuation, no intention that they be fully read or understood. So for your benefit the original text is below.

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Empathy

This morning I slipped on my coat and I put on my mother’s gloves

I walked out into the crisp cool morning keys in hand

I drove watching my hands on the wheel detached as I once watched her’s

Turning the corner, adjusting the mirror, both hands on the wheel

I realized I had grown like her, through age and maturity

The things that as a youth I had despised with an ignorant disregard

I now understood having been exposed to life’s harsh reality

Her loneliness, the depression she battled, the sadness behind her eyes

I rubbed my hands along my face, to feel her touch in my own movements

The notes of Elgar’s cello in my mind’s ear repeating in endless loops

The hands inside her gloves were mine

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The completed piece brings together the pretty picture in the background with the cold mechanical type scaring the surface much like reality. Together I hope they make something beautiful here just as these conditions can in us. Because of its' small size in order for it to be displayed as part of the San Antonio Calligraphy Guild's (SACG) Spring Show, I framed the completed framed piece.

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You can see this along with the works of other members of the SACG on display at Crumpets Restaurant. The opening reception is today from 4:00 to 6:00 Pm and the work will be on display through May 3rd of 2010.

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Invitation Calligraphy and Design by Joanne Pacelli

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