Centenarian Sunset, Mum at 102

I find old people beautiful in a unique way, with their long lives etched in their faces and hands. My mother’s life of 102 years inspired this carving. She retained her feisty character despite suffering from dementia, blindness, and breast cancer in her final years. Even though she was blind, I wanted to capture her alertness in the eyes, and to have her talking with mouth open, showing that she still had her own teeth. She enjoyed tackling crosswords and whenever ‘the elderly’ were mentioned, she would ask “Who are they?” 

 

The pink marble is from the Barossa Valley where her ancestors were early settlers. Her face and hands are polished to distinguish them from the scutched, pale pink clouds that give a sense of weightlessness. The polished coarse crystals of this marble have the texture and translucency of aged flesh. Roman numerals in the clouds represent her age. The needle, thread, and vintage cotton reel (‘Made in Australia’) symbolise her era when women sewed clothes and mended.