Part 2: "I've Hit Rock Bottom" (no pun intended)

I awoke the 2nd day with sore hands and praying that I will do better work today.  Wolfgang is an excellent teacher and tries to be patient with me.  All I can do is try, he responds “Don’t try, DO!”  So far, I have wondered about a thousand times why I wanted to do this so much that I would put it first during this sabbatical.  Maybe to try something that seems almost impossible to me at this age, see if there is a creative bone in my body, and be open to cultural differences. I am amazed how hard this is to do.  There is NOTHING easy about this.

Each day is about the same: Breakfast, WORK, Lunch, WORK, Dinner out at 7:30 and home around 11 pm when I crash. One afternoon we have a lovely masseuse and I opt for the last appointment and after working the morning and about an hour in afternoon blow off the last hour reading.  By Wednesday, I hated that huge block of unyielding marble.It seems never-ending as you do different things to every area, sometimes 2 or 3 times to get it right.  Wolfgang is often marking areas in red or black for me to sculpt deeper or better.

I have decided the cost of this week is worth it and a good value overall.  No amount of money would be worth teaching beginners how to do this!  I have been comfortable with the location, excellent food, amenities, people and surroundings. I am not as comfortable with my ability or my project.   By Wednesday, I felt like stopping as I now understand this is not going to be a future creative experience.  I kept going but started counting the hours and days left in the class. The really hard and tedious work seemed easy when he came and showed me a technique for the umpteenth time.  I’m sure he was as frustrated as I was.  The group made a decision to not go to nearby Perugia for an afternoon in order to continue work on our projects.  I had been looking forward to a work afternoon off, but was too tired to go anywhere so was fine with that decision.

On Thursday afternoon, I decided I was crazy to do this and after 39 plus hours of work during the week said I would work through Friday at lunch and be done.  I immediately could see the end of it and quit counting the hours and happily finished all I could Friday morning.  Wolfgang was probably just as happy for me to be away since it had been a long week for both of us.  After lunch, I went for a swim, rested, viewed the sunset, read, packed and felt better. They worked until 8 pm on Friday and looked worn out when they arrived for dinner. 

A good friend later said about my work on this sculpture: “Remember how many people are just like this rock.  You work and work on then but it just wears you out and they never really change.”  Too true.

We were about to celebrate the end of the week and our finished projects.  Rainer had had some experience and did an amazing job of his women with flowing hair.  He seemed to learn a lot from Wolfgang's teaching and his project was truly worthy of any garden.  He modeled his work on his girlfriend.  

Gaby, his girlfriend, worked hard and seemed to get good help from Wolfgang too.  Her shell turned out so well except for her minor disappointment that one false move took a bit more than desired out of her sculpture.  I had wished a hundred times that I had thought of a shell.  Getting her contours right made it a difficult project.  

Next is Part 3 : What I learned from this unique experience.

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