Broken

The broken vessel is a topic of poets, philosophers, folklore and biblical writings. I have been very fortunate to see how this sculpture has connected to people and for them to share their stories and thoughts. As an example, about a month ago I had a woman get emotional while viewing it. My wife asked her what was causing this reaction. The woman shared that she had some family issues that has caused her hurt and to feel broken. The barbed wire represented a fence to her and served as a reminder that she has to stay away from her family to be emotionally safe. It was a powerful moment.

I wish I could tell you that this piece was initially created to provoke this response, but it was not. This is one of my early pieces and was a sculpture of a voluptuous abstract woman. During a move, it was dropped and broken. It sat in a cardboard box for over a year. One night I decided to piece it back together. I purposely left out select pieces and added the barbed wire that I got from a historic farm down the road from me. This experience was a great lesson for me; sometimes things created are much more dynamic than originally intended.