Did She Know She Had Wings?

DID SHE KNOW SHE HAD WINGS?
“I don’t think she knew she had wings.” Was a comment I made to Jenna’s mom. That comment keeps feeding me creatively. Together we all play, shoes no shoes, what does she wear, how is she sitting? Images float through my mind of someone I have never known. She appears to have soaked up everything. If she were sitting at the gravesite she would be elated over the soft grass, and the texture of the stone, fascinated and smiling about the wings. Fascinated by the world around her and emitting joy like on of those lights you see in the night sky and can’t help but be drawn to it and wonder, “what is so special that warrants such brightness?” Back and forth in in-mails Jenna’s mom and I go until the formulation of Jenna’s sculpture is just the way it was supposed to be. I’ll know it, because it will feel like it has been that way forever, it is just our journey to discover it. I know that sounds strange but it is what the process is all about.

DO THEY PLAY?
I think about all of the children that I have sculpted. I wonder if somehow they know each other on the other side, Did Casey and Lucas meet Ellie. Are Ellie and Lucas greeting Jenna and showing her around, are the older children, kipper and Jeanine watching on and smiling?

THE BOX
This week I pray as the box of items that will be utilized to create this sculpture are gathered together by Jenna’s mom. It is a sacred ritual and a very intimate time between Jenna and her mother a part of their intimacy that I will soon feel. Emotion is packed with each item as pieces are carefully chosen. Clothes, photographs, video, shoes, special items that will be not just reference but the seeds of emotions that birth this work of art.

JENNA’S MOM
I know you have a name and I never noticed it before, but I prefer to just call you Jenna’s mom. I do hope that is all right. Perhaps it is because I’m trying to find my connection to Jenna, and that is through you. Jenna’s mom is an incredibly honoring title.