Bodies: I live here

Item Description

This piece will be on exhibit at Machines with Magnets as part of the CSPH's gallery show - Bodies: I live here - between March 23 and April 7.

Buckskin stretched over ceramic form, walnut, fabric, makeup. 20"x13"x11". 2002

Artist Bio

“A surgeon can open the abdomen and reach deep inside. Will he find a soul? He’ll chase it forever behind the folds of intestine and fat. He’ll arrive at the muscles of the back; he’ll reach right through to the other side, but the coquettish soul will not be captured. Sew the belly back up, and the person lives, is animated, makes supper, goes to the bathroom. Where was the soul hiding when the body lay gravely open like a cookbook on a kitchen table? We revel in the flesh – we idolize, fetishize, medicate, and deprecate it. In my twenties, I thought my work was all about ‘The Body;’ the flesh and the goo of it. In truth, it was about the experience of inhabiting a body: the poignant impossibility of comprehending one’s place in the cosmos from inside an imperfect cave of flesh.”

I wrote the above words almost a decade ago, a couple years into my labors as a massage therapist; a couple years after I’d moved out of my cherished mill studio, thinking I’d return to it soon. Instead, it became financially necessary to do massage full time, eventually starting my own massage business. In the intervening time, I’ve experienced family trauma, serious personal illness, personal loss, personal growth. I’ve laid my hands on thousands of people. I’ve learned to sense health and illness with my touch. And during the last six months, I watched my mother’s body disintegrate while she was still living, and I learned I was able to be there for her as she passed.

In January, I “retired” from seeing massage clients; my business is at the point where I can let my contractors perform the massages while I manage the practice. This feels momentous. I still don’t have a studio, or a ton of free time, but at least I feel I will have the mental space to start thinking about creative work again, to start processing the enormity of what I’ve seen, felt, and come to know about the body.

Item Special Note

*Please note: This item is available for local pickup only. The winning bidder must pickup this piece from the CSPH (250 Main Street, Unit 1, Pawtucket, RI 02860) between April 10 and April 13.