One night, I was sitting on the deck, sipping a bourbon (born and raised in KY), smoking a cigarette (Again, KY, but it's a 2-3 pack-a- year habit that I reserve for special occasions or moments), and studying my work. It hit me like a ton of bricks that her head was too big for her body, so I sawed it off. It was very difficult. I then decided to take a very appropriate "Vive la Révolution" photo. The ultra-rich control EVERYTHING, y'all.

I quickly started on a new head, but I began living part-time in Colorado, so things moved SLOWLY. But each time I came home, I realized how VERY MUCH I missed working on the project and understood that for me, it's all about the process. That realization also helped me understand why I worked 30-40 hour a week on a garden that was rarely seen by anyone but me.

The head looks LOVELY on my deck railing, especially covered with snow.

Though I mostly used scrap wood and hardware I had on hand, and toilet paper, foil, and masking tape from Dollar Tree, other ingredients weren't cheap and due to her size, the cost was mounting. I had already bought the canopy to protect her, and Portland White Cement was hard to come by and rather expensive. I also used GALLONS of glue and drywall compound.

I devoted 15-20 hours to her each week (in addition to my full-time job), and it was messy work that forced me to work in odd positions that would result in sore muscles the next day. I worked in a down coat with rubber gloves over my wool ones in the winter and in 95 degree heat in the summer. I was DEDICATED, but......why? I was going to be moving to another state within the year and I figured the next owners would take her down.

I began sculpting the legs and lower torso with wire, foil, and tape, but realized that rain would wreak havoc on the paper maché/ concrete mixture and I had better put a canopy over her. This turned out to be a GREAT idea for other reasons as well: I hung a fan and lights and so I was no longer limited by weather or darkness to work on my project.

After a few weeks, I realized that the statue-in-the-making was getting too big to get through a doorway and too heavy for me to lift. I wrangled her out of my basement work room and onto my wheelbarrow in the garage. On his ensuing visit from Colorado, my now-husband helped me build a foundation and install the torso on the hill.

With great gusto, I began the relatively easy work of reinforcing the wire a bit and covering the it with foil and masking tape. I assembled a very simple "skeleton" from scrap wood pieces.

I then found a recipe for waterproof paper maché on the site ultimatepapermache.com and began applying it over the tape and foil.

I made this ghost out of chicken wire for Halloween in 2023. I liked her so much that I decided it would be a great idea to cover the wire in a waterproof paper maché to make a garden statue and grow moss on her. I frequently jump into things with both feet when I have no idea what I am doing or how long it will take.

She has survived and I have learned so much about sticking with a project, because you don't walk away from something this big, and tearing it down would have felt awful for so many reasons.

I modified the mixture in an effort to create a more "sculptable" medium. It worked better for detailed work, but I found that it sometimes moved on me as it dried. Not by much, but enough that I was often disappointed by the overnight change. I had to make peace with an outcome that wasn't exactly what I intended.

The Beginning

She Moves Outside

By very early spring, the canopy had been rendered brittle by the sun and there were several holes in it. Without the canopy, I kept a careful eye on the weather as I applied the mixture to thicken the thinly covered areas and tried to add details to give her more realistic "movement" and a more cohesive look.

Though I have always enjoyed artistic projects, I have rarely tried to create Art, and when I have, I was too hard on and disappointed myself. Many times throughout this project, I hated aspects of her face and form and would waste hours trying to "fix" her and wind up just as disgusted or more.

Her head is still too big for her body because I added more and more and more mixture to try to get the head "right." I think I would have preferred a more "wrong," but smaller head.

I plan to do a few more things, including starting the moss growth, before the house is sold. I think I would still do it even if I knew for certain she would be removed next month. Because it has been about the process and the healing that happens along the way.

She is Decapitated