mended love

​Painted driftwood, air dry clay (girl’s head), hair extension, silk and cotton fabric fragments, 12 x 3 x 3 inches. 

This is my depiction of “The Girl Who Fell in Love with a Horse,” from the Tales of Tono. The Oshirasama Hall in Tono with thousands of girl and horse dolls made of crude wood pieces and fabric left an impression on me in October last year. The love between the girl and horse is broken by her father, who is enraged that she would fall in love with a horse. He hangs the horse from a tree and when the girl still won’t let go of the horse, he cuts off its head. The girl and the horse’s head fly off into the heavens to become divine beings, reunited in their love. The girl becomes the goddess of sericulture in this Tono Tale (Tono was known for its silkworm industry.)  

From this rather sparse and gory folklore, I created the horse and girl figures from driftwood gifted to me by Sondra’s husband, Patrick. I painted them black, then created a head for the girl with air drying clay. They are clothed in scraps of silk and cotton that I had collected over the years.