Dolphin Address 33 2003
September 16, 2003
As a sculptor my burden has been heavy in the most literary sense. I have always liked to live on the edge of my ability. It did not kill me, yet, and though it made me stronger, it nearly broke my back. Mostly I worked in tree trunks weighing up to 5 tons. These you don't lift with your hands. I have a jack for that.
But in 1986 a timber company commissioned me to sculpt a giant frog. They provided the wood: beams of Pitch Pine, 31 x 31 cm in lengths of 8 meters. I got them into my workshop rolling on pieces of pipe, pushed with a 2 meter long crowbar. There I sawed them into appropriate lengths and cut them into partial shape with gauges. Since I was not equipped to lift the elements into place this had to be done manually. I estimate the heaviest one to be about 250 kilos. Lifted at one side that is 125 kilos. The frog was 8 layers high and it took me a year to complete. The earning was excellent, but it cost me my back.
At home I walked with a stick and outside my radius of action was very limited. It must have been a messenger of the gods that got my focus on whales and dolphins. I too returned to the Waters, equipped with a monofin. Within 2 months I regained my stride.
Because in monofin swimming the arms are idled into streamline I found a way to call them in with the waterwing. A few years ago I needed to have a kidney puncture. The standard equipment for this contains a 5 cm long needle for an anesthesia. That did not suffice. The layer of muscle I had developed proved to have piled to 9 cm. It makes me think of ivy-growth that survives its host.
This is my Verana Marum, the truth of the sea. If you can rest in comfort in the arms of gravity, time will heal you. She will keep and caress you on whatever shores you may venture. The rhythm of the waves will be in your mind steps and your eyes will light up at every Wiedersehn.
Jan Ploeg, Fanore meadow, September 17th 2003
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