Unfired clay, 1994. Nonextant.
Foot of Clay is a life study, and it persuades through particulars. The toes differ in length, thickness and angle. The big toe is far the largest, broad across its end, with a wide nail set into the swollen tip. The four smaller toes rise to different heights and lean in different directions, each with its own knuckle and nail. Across the top of the foot, the tendons run toward the toes as separate raised ridges with shallow hollows between them. At the ankle the skin gathers into folds and creases.
The modelling follows the changes of plane over the joints and the differing tension of the skin from one part of the foot to another. Taut skin lies over the toes and instep, and slack, folded skin sits at the ankle. The surface is finely pitted and uneven, and it keeps the marks of working. That texture reads as skin, and it also shows the clay as a handled material.
Because the foot is life-sized, every proportion in it can be checked against a real foot. It is the artist’s own foot, so the irregularities belong to one person’s anatomy: a particular big toe, a particular spread of the smaller ones. The likeness is accurate in the way a record of an individual body is accurate.
