Miscellaneous
Following retirement, I wondered what I would do with this chapter of my life. At age 70, I decided to finish the art degree started more than 50 years earlier. Like these round shaped bowls, I have come full circle. I may appear fragile but like the abaca fiber used to create these bowls, I am strong and resilient. The seed embeddings in the bowls symbolize the new life I'm creating thru art. These pieces could represent three phases of life. Like the first 25 years of life, bowls 1 and 2 show a lot of experimentation and exploration into the paper making medium. Some mistakes were made but nothing a few stitches could not fix. Bowls 3, 4, and 5 symbolize midlife, still some experimenting but more consistent, more rhythmic, more balanced. Bowls 6, 7 and 8 are simple, elegant and harmonious, representing life after retirement. I think I know what I'm doing even though like these round-bottomed bowls, I may sometimes appear to be a little wobbly.