“Window” is a stone sculpture glimpse into the wonders of the natural world and the metaphors of life as they relate to me, my cat, and the outside world.

Inspiration

My stone sculptor friend, Carol, moved to Italy in 2023 and sold me her stash of Translucent Orange Alabaster.  What a treasure trove!  Among her small boulders was this elegant slab.  I have never had such a big raw slab of orange from which to create a sculpture.  The surfaces of the stone describe the natural undulations of the pocket of earth in which it was formed.  The mud inclusions are fascinating, and in ironic contrast to this outrageous color.  The mud is as old as the stone and has been a part of it since its inception.   The stone itself is a window into its formation and content.

I have carved this stone many times, and the color is always a thrill.  Each stone has different colors, different amounts of mud, and a different character.  These titles link to their respective creations:  “Crabby Lady”, “Let It Snow”, “Monarchs Matter”, “She Made Me Into A Newt”. 

My Cat

My cat, Chai, is the first strictly indoor cat with whom I have lived.  She has never been outside in her short life, never run through the grass, rolled in the dirt, nor climbed a living tree.  We have indoor versions of all these natural experiences.  And we have windows.

Chai loves peering through windows into the world outside.  She also gravitates to my desktop computer where she tries to capture the cursor as it darts around the screen.  The very simplistic moving graphics of low-budget TV commercials drew her attention as a small kitten.

We had a trial subscription through our cable carrier for Cat TV.  It was amazing how quickly she crept to the screen, spellbound by the close-ups of birds and squirrels–common wildlife she studies through our windows.  It was then that I fully realized how screen-oriented my little cat is.  Screens mesmerize cats along with people.

Chai is a first-generation indoor cat; her mother was a barn cat.  We live on a busy street corner, and we have many songbirds in our yard.  We neither want to lose our cats nor our birds, so they must live apart.  Chai’s outlook does not appear to suffer from her indoor life.  She has a creative little mind, invents games, and searches the house for things to do.  She has never bolted for an open door; she has no wish to go out there.  Watching, perhaps stalking from a safe vantage, is the allure of her window.

Alabaster

Alabaster is a chalky, soft, compact sedimentary stone with fine and uniform grain.  The basic ingredient is calcium dissolved in water, then made solid through pressure.  The stone itself is strong (though soft) and mostly reliable, a delight to carve and polish.  The color and finish are delicate–they can be faded by sunlight and scratched by a fingernail.

Great Beauty and Responsibility

Translucent Orange is a delicate stone in the way it reacts with light.  Sunlight, halogen light, and even a close LED light will cause tiny fractures in the stone which irrevocably change the color throughout to pale milky rose.  Back-lighting and display in sunlight are definitely discouraged since both will destroy the exquisite orange color.  With great beauty comes great responsibility.

Windows

Windows are both opportunities and limitations to see from another point of view.  There are many ways to see and reflect on our world.  We can never go everywhere, but we can keep an open mind and an open window.