FOOT

During a trip to Tuscany earlier this year, Cor and I were wandering around Florence, following our instincts and inviting the city reveal itself to us. One day, we discovered Sasha's, a rather magical little antiques and oddities store hidden inside a winding cobblestone road not far from Ponte Vecchio. The loverly Sasha herself owns and runs the shop, which holds a deep smell of of old books, candles, lacquer, wood, metal and tea. Hers was easily the most interesting and authentic antique shop I've ever visited.

Inside, we found and purchased a one-hundred-something-year-old concerto tour poster, and I discovered two anatomical sculptures made from white clay by an Italian medical professor in the early 20th century. Muscular studies, one was a life-sized extended human arm, lacking skin or fascia textures to allow an understanding of the muscle groups and bone structures hidden inside our bodies. The other piece was a slightly enlarged human foot, Roman in style and no less accurate. I wanted to purchase them both of course, but decided otherwise after eyeing the respective price tags... especially as I estimated that I could very likely sculpt these myself.

Challenge accepted.

A few weeks after returning home to Berlin, I spent a Sunday with a brick of white clay sculpting [what ultimately turned out to be] my own foot. I somehow didn't realize this at the time, but, clearly, the resemblance to my large, long, flat feet is unmistakable (not unlike those of Sideshow Bob). Still, the piece somehow fits very well into an old Birkenstock of mine.