Exploding Fetus.....

I had FINALLY finished my fetus sculpture after hours of work I put into it. It was fired this weekend. I came into the studio on Monday to check on it.... and here is what I found:



The head of the fetus had exploded in half and somewhere in the process the entire head had fallen off of the body alotgether, taking the poor fetus's left arm off with it.

It was a SAD SAD SAD sight. Luckily, I refrained from tears. But words cannot describe how dissapointed I was. And the worst part is that it was all my stupid fault!!!!!!! I thought I had created a hole in the head through the open mouth of the fetus. But apparently, the hole had not gone all the way through. It was SO frustrating.

HOWEVER, this experience did not prove to be an entirely negative one. In one of my first blogs, I stated that, as an artist, you are bound to fail at some point. I would consider "exploding fetus" to be an epic fail on my part. The key in failing is learning to deal with the failure and move on. Life is not perfect. You can't expect everything you do to be 100% successful. So, when you enconter a dissapointment, learn to make the best out of it and see the positive aspects of it.

Luckily, with Amy's help (I LOVE YOU AMY), I am currently in "exploding fetus repair" mode. I managed to glue all the pieces back together. Today, I filled the cracks with wood putty. Tomorrow, I am going to sand down the seams to make them smooth and then cover the fetus with a primer that will hopefully conceal it's flaws. Next week, I'm going to paint the fetus rather than applying underglaze and firing it. PROBLEM SOLVED.

I've now realized that troubleshooting is something I'm going to have to get extremely good at if I want to continue making art......