This is my piece from class yesterday. The reality is that when I started sculpting my animal the decision to make a bunny came out of skill rather than anything else. Later as we played with our neighbors, we decided to create accessories and other friends to play with, so among our things I created a snake. At first it was hard to find a metaphor but as I created the environment for my bunny and discussed the work with my classmate, interesting things came out.
For example my bunny is out in the wild -free- although originally he was conceived as a Central Park Zoo resident. I think themes of liberty and being free, and what that it entails, were popping up and that it quite relevant to certain things in my life right now, so that was interesting.
As for the snake, event though he was conceived as a friendly participant, everything I can associate to him it's negative, so I wonder what is it doing in my bunny world? and what does it represent? Perhaps I simply don't want to go into it, but one thing that I will say is, that of all the things we choose to do that we believe are planned or thought out, all have a latent content, no matter how much we try to control it. At least this is my experience so far with this class.
I had a strong reaction to your figures when I walked around the room to look at others' work. I instantly wanted to protect the bunny and wondered what story you had created to include both bunny and snake. I thought you must be quite brave and perhaps quite open to create such opposed characters that you would be sharing with others. And now that I see you recognizing the contrast of the "plaything" you represented, I also see that you are capable of self-awareness and reflection, two things that make for a great therapeutic relationship, I think. The thing is, bunnies, though cute and vulnerable-looking, are quite capable fighters themselves. They are not all they appear to be. As a therapist, I'd be interested in talking to you about what both these animals bring to the world and to each other. Really interesting work! Thanks for sharing it here because I was so intrigued by it in class and I appreciate getting to RE-think about it here.
ReplyDeleteThank you for sharing! Your feedback was very insightful and has given me more prompts to continue to think about my pieces. : )
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