chorused. I winked at Wren, who suppressed a giggle.
Lizzy and Wren’s shows were a lot smoother. Rafael even wandered up to CypressWood when we were marveling at the half-completed In Sickness and In Health . Lizzy stopped talking about how she would combine the soapstone with the granite when he walked in, and we all turned to gape. He’d grown a goatee. He didn’t say anything more than ‘hi’ before kneeling in front of the sculpture to examine it, straightening to shake Lizzy’s hand with a formal little bow, and leaving.
“That was praise, I think,” I ventured after he’d left.
“I guess. He wasn’t exactly moved to tears.”
“Maybe he was holding them back until he got outside.”
She shook her head at me. “Well. As I was saying.” She looked around. “What was I saying?”
Wren let rip with a belly laugh. “He just did it for effect, hon, snap out of it! You were telling the assembled crowd of admirers about fitting Sickness over and around her,” she reached out and played her fingers over Health’s muscular back.
Health was a granite woman half-kneeling, her face towards the ground and her hair pulled loosely behind her. Her calf muscles were flexed and her hands reached behind her to cup the empty air above her hips. Her smile was so strained it was hard to decide if she was actually grimacing or not.
Sickness would be a soapstone woman resting on Health’s back. Lizzy wanted to wrap one of her arms around the granite waist; the other would be supporting her head as she leaned her elbow into Health’s back (which explained the twisting of her left shoulder blade.) Lizzy had started the sculpture months before, when she was still in Ireland, but once she had shaped the granite she’d found she couldn’t concentrate on it long enough to get anything substantial done. The break-up with Moira had further complicated things, since she couldn’t contemplate the work without also facing her emotions about the end of her relationship.
So she’d applied to FireWind and a few other retreats, and shipped the stone ahead of her once she’d been accepted. Fortunately, the founders had provided all the pneumatic equipment she and Angelica could use, since her equipment was both bulky and wired for 220v. Their studio was outfitted for the heavy work of sculpture: built-in compressor cabinets, hoseable studio floors, hydraulic work tables that could elevate to five feet, two- and four-wheel dollies. She’s bought a good block of soapstone in Austin when she’d arrived, and concentrated since her arrival on drilling Health’s features.
“I’ve been vacillating so much on the expression of Sickness, I suppose it’s my main problem at the moment,” she told us, moving to her easel. “Her form I know already, as you can see, so long as I can handle the logistics of fitting them together. But her face leaves me cold.”
She flipped to a page with five sketches of a face. They ranged from nauseated to lugubrious. “What do yous think? I don’t want her too much, you know, in need of antacids. It’s more of a mindset thing.”
“But aren’t you going for the problem between the two?” Caleb asked. “Health is carrying Sickness even when she shouldn’t?”
“Even so, the way these things work, or at least how I’ve seen them, is the Sickness one will play up the problem with her weakness,” I said. “So she can’t look all happy or anything.”
“I know, but look at the way Lizzy has the posture,” he said, turning back a page to indicate the lax muscles. “She’s just flopped up there on top of Health, it’s not like she’s so sick she can’t even sit up a little and look around and enjoy the ride.”
“Co-dependency goes deeper than that,” Angelica told him. “Both partners become so tied to their roles they can’t help but adopt them when they’re together. Isn’t that your message, Lizzy, at least a little?”
“That’s what I see,” said Theo.
She
Lizzy and Wren’s shows were a lot smoother. Rafael even wandered up to CypressWood when we were marveling at the half-completed In Sickness and In Health . Lizzy stopped talking about how she would combine the soapstone with the granite when he walked in, and we all turned to gape. He’d grown a goatee. He didn’t say anything more than ‘hi’ before kneeling in front of the sculpture to examine it, straightening to shake Lizzy’s hand with a formal little bow, and leaving.
“That was praise, I think,” I ventured after he’d left.
“I guess. He wasn’t exactly moved to tears.”
“Maybe he was holding them back until he got outside.”
She shook her head at me. “Well. As I was saying.” She looked around. “What was I saying?”
Wren let rip with a belly laugh. “He just did it for effect, hon, snap out of it! You were telling the assembled crowd of admirers about fitting Sickness over and around her,” she reached out and played her fingers over Health’s muscular back.
Health was a granite woman half-kneeling, her face towards the ground and her hair pulled loosely behind her. Her calf muscles were flexed and her hands reached behind her to cup the empty air above her hips. Her smile was so strained it was hard to decide if she was actually grimacing or not.
Sickness would be a soapstone woman resting on Health’s back. Lizzy wanted to wrap one of her arms around the granite waist; the other would be supporting her head as she leaned her elbow into Health’s back (which explained the twisting of her left shoulder blade.) Lizzy had started the sculpture months before, when she was still in Ireland, but once she had shaped the granite she’d found she couldn’t concentrate on it long enough to get anything substantial done. The break-up with Moira had further complicated things, since she couldn’t contemplate the work without also facing her emotions about the end of her relationship.
So she’d applied to FireWind and a few other retreats, and shipped the stone ahead of her once she’d been accepted. Fortunately, the founders had provided all the pneumatic equipment she and Angelica could use, since her equipment was both bulky and wired for 220v. Their studio was outfitted for the heavy work of sculpture: built-in compressor cabinets, hoseable studio floors, hydraulic work tables that could elevate to five feet, two- and four-wheel dollies. She’s bought a good block of soapstone in Austin when she’d arrived, and concentrated since her arrival on drilling Health’s features.
“I’ve been vacillating so much on the expression of Sickness, I suppose it’s my main problem at the moment,” she told us, moving to her easel. “Her form I know already, as you can see, so long as I can handle the logistics of fitting them together. But her face leaves me cold.”
She flipped to a page with five sketches of a face. They ranged from nauseated to lugubrious. “What do yous think? I don’t want her too much, you know, in need of antacids. It’s more of a mindset thing.”
“But aren’t you going for the problem between the two?” Caleb asked. “Health is carrying Sickness even when she shouldn’t?”
“Even so, the way these things work, or at least how I’ve seen them, is the Sickness one will play up the problem with her weakness,” I said. “So she can’t look all happy or anything.”
“I know, but look at the way Lizzy has the posture,” he said, turning back a page to indicate the lax muscles. “She’s just flopped up there on top of Health, it’s not like she’s so sick she can’t even sit up a little and look around and enjoy the ride.”
“Co-dependency goes deeper than that,” Angelica told him. “Both partners become so tied to their roles they can’t help but adopt them when they’re together. Isn’t that your message, Lizzy, at least a little?”
“That’s what I see,” said Theo.
She
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