Fishers of the Li Jiang

As I was working on this piece I attended a sculpting workshop by Scott Rogers last year in June of 2011.  One of the things he said to us during the workshop is "when your sculpting your sculpting yourself."  I didn't realize it at the time, but he was absolutely right, I was sculpting my life in this sculpture, past, present, and future.

Just up the river from the bustling city of Guilin China you'll find the serene village of the Fishers of the Li Jiang (Li River).  This piece is about life, your life, my life, our families and friends lives.  Many of us have dreams, desires and goals we would like to fulfill in our life time and that is what this is about.  From the back of the sculpture there is a bird swimming in the water searching for, in this case a fish. What is it we are searching for?  Just behind the fisherman the bird has found his fish and is swimming to the surface.  As he reaches the surface he battles with the fish to keep hold of it.  At this point he has to decide if it is worth the effort to keep his prize or if he should let it go and find something better.  Many times I have searched only to find nothing or found what I thought I was looking for only to realize that what I had found was of no worth to me.  I had to continue the search.  At times we might get out of the water to put the search on hold and contemplate on what it is we searching for, sometimes consulting with trustworthy friends at times, and then back to the search (the two birds sitting on the raft).   At last when we have found what it is we are searching for we might take a rest and dry our wings of all the hard work we've done.  But the search is not over, we still have much to do so we dive back in and continue the search (the two birds on the right).  Throughout this life we one day hope to become the man, the man who has accomplished what he has set out to do (the basket full of fish) and can achieve anything he sets his mind to.

Height - 24"

Width - 39"

Depth - 10"

Year Created 2011