Thoughts on Making Bones from a Non-Visual Artist
Monday, January 31, 2011 at 10:37AM Guest Post by Susan McAllister, Project Manager of One Million Bones
Last week, I participated in OMB’s Fourth Sunday Bone Making event with Richard Garriott-Stejskal. Now, as Project Manager, I’ve attended all of the events since the beginning, but mostly I’ve found myself introducing artists, thanking volunteers, passing around sign-in sheets, lending a hand where it’s necessary, those kinds of tasks. Last week though, I put that all aside, and hesitantly, I made bones.
You have to understand, I’m not a visual artist. I don’t draw, paint, or collage, and I certainly don’t work in clay. But we’ve set a goal of 206 bones (the number in a human body) per workshop and I decided I wanted to help reach the goal. Usually my inner critic voice stops me before I get started. I expect some of you know that feeling. But this was different. Really. As soon as I let myself stop thinking about what my bones looked like, if they were realistic, if they looked as good as other people’s, and started thinking about why I was making them, I had a complete epiphany. And here it is: This is about being part of something larger than myself, making a short term impact with my donation and a long term impact by making bones for the installation in 2013. This understanding made my 16 bones beautiful, even to my eye.
Furthermore, our workshop centered on a discussion on the situation in Sudan and the conversation that took place while we were all working allowed me to really pour my heart into making the bones. Thinking about the struggles that the Sudanese and Darfuri people deal with every day, the uncertainty of just about every aspect of their lives, I realized that there was no place I’d rather be and nothing I’d rather be doing than offering my support to the collective process that is One Million Bones. 2013 seems a long way off, but when the bones I made are placed on the National Mall, I will know that the time I spent making them let me be part of making a difference in the world. I hope you’ll try it whether you think of yourself as an artist or not.
Reader Comments (1)
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