Notes on "Madelaine and Percy"
by Lisa Lichtenfels
When I designed this sculpture my intention was to create an opposite personality -- she was to be completely different from the piece I had been working on, "the Amazon Warrior." This warrior had filled me with desires of wanton mayhem and violence. When the new neighbors across the street were playing their music too loudly and for far too long, I imagined slaying the lot of them, and as these ideas increased I realized I desperately needed a balance of gentleness and restraint -- I needed to be reminded of the importance of patience and compassion.
There is another source of inspiration for this sculpture. Years ago Jerry noticed a wounded pigeon by the side of the interstate. At first we thought we would not be able to save him because his neck seemed to be compressed, possibly by being struck head on by a car, but he was a very young bird and after a few days living in the back of our van he looked quite normal. Jerry had set up the inside of the van to be his sanctuary, with blankets and plenty of food. When he released him, the bird did not go away. He nested on our back porch, and ever time Jerry went out there he became quite excited. After some consideration, Jerry concluded that the bird was so young it had never learned how to fly. Possibly he had fallen out of a nest by the highway and was hit before he was fledged. So Jerry would pick him up and run as fast as he could and toss him into the air. This became a ritual every time Jerry came home from work. We had no idea if all this exercise was doing any good until one day our pigeon actually stayed in the air after the toss. With that last fling he flew away, but he did come back from time to time for a visit. We could tell when our friend, who we started to call Percy, had stopped by because he would leave a little pile of droppings on the back porch. Eventually he must have grown up because the evidence of his visits first diminished and then ended. We always hoped that he was out there living a good bird life, maybe with little Percys in a nest someplace.
The two ideas came together -- a portrait of Percy and a compassionate companion. The companion, Madelaine, is a combination of many women I have known, especially women who are gentle and love animals. Her face took the longest amount of time I have ever spent on a single head -- four weeks from start to finish. I think this is due to the subtly of her expression -- the face was very delicate.
The park bench was researched on the internet -- it is actually a replica of a bench in a public park in Belgium. Strangely there was an entire website devoted to benches in parks all around the world -- people had sent in pictures of their favorite benches, and of the lot, this was my favorite. It is rather small with Victorian style trim.
My portrait of Percy is not soft sculpture. Nylon has certain size limitations and Percy was just too small to be sculpted that way. He is made of paper clay and painted with Genesis paints. Genesis paints are much like oil paints with the exception that they are heat dried. Being able to paint, heat, and then paint again allows for a lot of layering and I think that helps get rid of the "flat" look that many paper clay sculptures have. Percy's sculpture has 35 or 40 layers of pigments.
When Madelaine and Percy were completed and set up for photography, I had a visitor in my studio who was a costume designer. He looked at Madelaine for a while and said, "I can tell you spent weeks getting all the details in her clothing, but the result is completely understated. I find myself looking at her face and not her clothes." He was amazed that I would spend so much time on something that was not to be noticed. I have considered his comments, and although it is not efficient from the standpoint of time management, I don't see that I have any choice. If the clothes are just thrown together, that detracts from Madelaine's face and personality because the viewer would sense that it wasn't right. In order for Madelaine to be completely "there" every element has to work. Her clothes would have to be the kind of clothes she would pick out, they have to hang on her body like how a coat and a dress would fit a woman who's spine isn't as straight as it was when she was younger. Even though she is not flashy, she takes care to protect her coat by placing an unfolded newspaper between her and the bench. Her shoes are the type of shoes that women often wear when walking has become painful -- nice lines, but designed by chiropractors for comfort. Her slightly swollen ankles are covered with old fashioned nylons -- the kind with the seam in the back, preferred by ladies who started wearing stockings in the 1940s. All of this is meant to be taken in at first glance and not really dwelled upon. What I want the viewer to see is Madelaine herself.
Jerry suggested that Madelaine should have three distinct piles of seeds for Percy. I never asked jerry why that would be the case -- I trust him to know how a person should communicate properly with another species. Percy's dining area is a free standing chess board -- they have little tables like that in New Orleans where people often sit on the street and play games of chess for fun or money. The position of the bird is much like how I remember our Percy, with his head cocked and maybe a little stiff, always approaching life from the oblique.