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The donkeys arrived home during the year that I discovered sculpting.
Their presence invaded my life, my heart and my work.
Their wonderful characters never cease to inspire me and
through them important values that mean a lot for me
and of which they are the most wonderful ambassadors.
I soon became aware that my purpose was to give the donkey
his rightful artistic place , like that of the horse.
It is an immense challenge.
The usual artistic images of donkeys are pitiful,
sorrowful and humiliating. They are intolerable to me.
When I take some clay and begin sculpting, my concentration comes slowly.
My hands guide me as I start to remove a little clay here
and there and a shape begins to form :
I am merely uncovering the sculpture dormant in the clay.
Constantly I go from my atelier to the donkeys' field
and back to the atelier.
My eyes absorb their every gesture, their expressions.
I caress them checking, as I do so, their shape and form.
They willingly play this little game that they love : they know.
My fingers and palms, cleansed by the clay that I have been moulding, absorb and memorise every hair and contour prior to reproducing them in clay.
At last , comes the delectable moment when the sculpture appears to be finished.
But the most important phase remains.
I must now go back to the field and to my subject, not any longer to check his physical form,
but to drink in his spirit, personality, kindness, sense of humour and unbridled affection
in order to invest the sculpture with these qualities,
to give the sculpture it's soul….
Pam
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