There comes a quiet moment when an artist realizes she is no longer making what she once made.
The materials are familiar.
Cloth. Needle. Thread.
Found fragments gathered over many years.
But something has changed.
The work is asking different questions now—
not What can I create?
but What wishes to become visible?
I Am the Elephant is the first piece in Creatures of the Divine, a growing collection of Stitched Relics. It feels less like the beginning of a new series than the opening of a gateway into worlds I have only begun to explore.
I began, as I often do, by studying. I printed photographs of Asian elephants and spent four days sculpting, carefully following what I saw. The form was accurate. The proportions were right.
But something essential was missing.
I had sculpted an elephant.
I had not yet met this Elephant.
So I set the photographs aside.
I began again.
This time I worked in companionship rather than control—not directing, but listening. The clay softened beneath my hands. The features became simpler, quieter, more my own.
Five days later, the Elephant I had been searching for quietly appeared.
Or perhaps...
it had been waiting for me all along.
The Elephant knew who it was before I did.
Before and after dyeing.
Gathered over time:
India
China (Hmong textile)
Liberty London
I am the Elephant
