hands

When you think of hands what do you think?
I think giving, taking, shaking, waving, holding, touching, squeezing, building, writing, signing, communication, gestures.
I also think about hands when we are born-- the doctor holds us, catches us. we get passed over to our mothers who hold us. we get passed around.
I then think about death and hands. The image that sticks in my mind of hands at a funeral are the hands of the person who is dead. Their hands are folded onto one another. They are the only one that is holding them.
In the end you hold yourself, your hands hold you.

I don't really know what my fascination with hands is. And it is definitely not a fetish--- I do not get aroused by hands. I just think of hands in many different ways. And to me, hands can have very many different meanings.

In ceramics I am in studio 1, which is a level where you can make whatever you want, there is no set assignments but you have to pick something a theme that you are going to stick with throughout the semester. And I am sticking to hand bowls.

They have a lot of meaning to me. It could be to hold something, to admire, to give, to place. I just think of it in many different ways.

I am thinking about trying to get into some installation art where I set up a memorial kind of thing with hands.

I am going to explain it like this....

I will have sculpted hands out of clay, in the manner that hands are seen on a body in a casket. They will be sitting on a pillow, with a blanket. On the left and right sides of this will be flowers in vases (to give it that funeral feel-- and hopefully viewers will understand the concept that it is supposed to be a funeral setting).

Then there will be post it notes. I want the viewers to write down the name of a loved one they have lost, or a place that reminds them of that person/animal, or a memory. I want the wall behind the installation and the side walls of the installation to be filled.

I think it would be a good way for all viewers to connect to the artwork but also for the viewers to connect with me, and themselves, people around them.

It is just an idea, but I would really like to do that.
Hopefully no one steals my idea, i would be very upset. :(