Blog

by Shelley Kerr

 

“To Live” is a bronze I unveiled at the Carnegie gallery opening in January. It is a celebration of the positive news and scientific breakthroughs that are rapidly changing the landscape of fighting cancer. The genesis--the inspiration--for this piece was the gratitude I feel towards my doctors in Minneapolis.

 

 

How do you represent cancer with gratitude? This was my challenge. 

 

I started by “book-ending” it. On one end, I could sculpt a life-sized human bladder in bronze (too specific and frankly, yucky). On the other end of the spectrum, I could sculpt the “flame of life” (too general). There was something I needed to discover between these two options.

 

In musing about the hopefulness of medicine, I remembered Greece is the birthplace of modern medicine when Hippocrates established his mighty creed: "First, Do No Harm". Through this emerged the idea of using the Greek language in some form. I knew I was onto something as I found myself in that place of calm and quiet. Of  “knowing.”

 

Representing cancer with gratitude required a novel approach: build 3 or 4 concept prototypes before committing to the final version. This opened up an entirely new creative process for me that was VERY fun!

 

Because I had to make 3-4 versions, my inner “judge” was quieted.

You know, the voice that says…

“You can’t do this.”

“It looks stupid.”

“Your brother is the creative one in the family.”

 

Gone.

(The "judge", not my brother.)

 

This opened up a super creative place — an open-ended puzzling process. The novel process of creating “To Live” resulted in the most creative sculpture I’ve made to date.

 

I keep a creative journal where I work out my inspiration, various drawings of the concept, and background research or details. During this process, I captured this wonderful Leonard Cohen quote.

 

“Before I can discard the verse, I have to write it…it’s just as hard to write a bad verse as a good verse. I can’t discard a verse before it is written because it is the writing of the verse that produces whatever delights or interests or facets that are going to catch the light. The cutting of the gem has to be finished before you can see whether it shines.”

 

Here I was with multiple versions - some good, some bad - and I must find the one that “shines.”

 

I needed some expertise on the Greek language. Dare I say (with apologies) … “it’s all Greek to me.” I brought in a Greek scholar: my nephew, Eric. He provided me with ancient Greek words to capture the meaning of what I was trying to convey. I looked for common letters or some kind of pattern. Here’s an early version:

 

Version 1: The Swan

 

Moving along, I narrowed down these options to the ancient verb “to live” conveyed in Greek by the letters zeta, alpha, and omega. I built these into a physical form and just played.

 

Version 2: three letters attached to a curved panel. In order and spelling out the verb. Boring!

I started to nest them in different orientations. Not quite there yet.

 

Then one day in my “play mode” the letters just magnetized into what would be my final creation. There is calm, quiet, and a gentle knowing. I had arrived.

 

 

 

 

The last bit of puzzling had to do with getting the nested letters off the ground. A 3-paneled base emerged, giving me more opportunity to add meaning.

 

A Special Note: the “soul, life, living being, breath” panel was particularly important for me. This panel represents the patient, because I feel very strongly that I am an active participant in my health care and my life (as is every patient). I signal this to my doctors--that I am “in" and we are in this together, a team.

 

For me as an artist, the process resulted in the emergence of a more creative person. I had a different motivation: gratitude. Gratitude to my doctors and the researchers who have brought amazing passion and breakthroughs to the fight with cancer. Gratitude for the people that support and love me. Gratitude for being alive.

 

For more of my stories, visit my website at kerrartworks.com.