The Story of The Lady
The Lady arrived and was unwrapped and celebrated in ceremony in Montana at the first Dialogues in 2010. Her history is best told by her creator Peter DeLuca:Continuation of a Thought
First, I would like to thank everyone for your response to me and the “Lady”. When I got home from Montana, Stacey found my notes and some of the points I wanted to make:
I’ve been a woodcarver for 30 years, starting as a production carver in a studio in Vermont and graduating to model maker (sculpting), and advancing to having my own business as a woodcarver and sculptor.
The story of “The Lady”: I started thinking about the picture representing the World Mother that Dee had sent to me. It was a representation by Geoffrey Hodson. Trying to feel into what Dee would want and trying to interpret in 3 dimensions took a long time for me to digest - about a year. Then there was the practicality of it all - the Wood! What type of wood to use since it would be in the elements? My choices were Cedar, Redwood or Cypress. My limitations were getting a piece of wood big enough for the project as it needed to be one piece. I was lost in “where do you get the wood” and a friend, Jack, shows up with a huge piece of cypress. It fit the dimensions I needed. Jack simply said, “here is a piece of wood you may want to carve”. He had no idea that I had a project brewing. It seems as soon as I made the commitment to carve “The Lady”, the wood appeared.
Well, after stalling for more than a year, Stacey told me I had 3 weeks to carve he World Mother. Like any project, you are committed from the first stroke, and then, I was off. My biggest difficulty was how do you translate spirit into matter? In the past I’ve always had to find the spirit in the matter - a big challenge and I took it as an opportunity. However that wasn’t the biggest challenge. Never having carved Cypress before, I soon realized it was the hardest wood I have ever worked with.
The problem was I could think faster than the wood would allow me to carve. This was very frustrating to me, but because of that, it tempered me. The wood told me what it wanted, thus allowing me to focus differently. This new rhythm demanded simplicity.
Starting with Geoffrey Hodson’s image of the World Mother, the sculpture took off from there. Now the challenge was taking a 2- dimensional image of a purely ethereal subject and translating it into a 3-dimensional sculpture. BIG CHALLENGE. Once facing the dimensional challenge, what do you know: another challenge. Blavatsky says “Who would dare to lift the veil of Isis”? How do you carve a veil on a 3-dimensional piece and still show the face. It was my biggest challenge until the last moment. My approach to that is “Don’t deal with it until you get there”. I didn’t know the answer, but I wouldn’t let it stop me. I just kept going. I dealt with the cloak, which represented to me “holding lightly”. Oh another challenge!? How do you express spirit as having a body. And you can’t, so the answer to that was “take more wood”? I was able to suggest a body, but is it really a hollow or place for the spirit? Well it was time to face the veil. I had thoughts: What are my options? Carve or apply?
Some of the process in proceeding is reflected in my personal challenge of always remembering Blavatsky’s quote, “Who would dare to lift the veil of Isis”? For me this quote represented looking into the face of the goddess, looking into the face of the unknown and taking the challenge of taking the 1st step on the path. A lot of connotations that all seem to fit. (This is recognized more by having been at this Therapeutic Touch Dialogues workshop and meeting all you who have lifted the veil of Isis!). Continuing on with the carving, I realized how profound this experience was and how intuitively right. I knew there was one clear shot to look into the face of the goddess. If I would look into the face of the goddess then it would be correct for the group to look into the face of “The Lady” as well. The base for The Lady is taken from the modern interpretation of the Earth Mother - the Blue Marble - which also provides a sense of peace and good will. The sculpture is grounded in a square, which represents matter. Many have said to me that they notice the Lady changes color from time to time. My language of color is purely intuitive, as I have had no formal training in this area and it is not a technical process. My gift in this area is I know what I want to say and when to stop When I get it I allow that to live.
Lesson learned - Face your challenges as they come. In this particular process I noticed the challenges became larger with each step. However, by meeting these challenges, the “Lady” has bee manifested - once a fleeting idea that now has found its meaning.
