Bronze edition: Ruth and Naomi

This edition of three casts began many years ago as a clay vessel I threw on a potters wheel which I then altered into the form of two embracing women. Ruth and Naomi.

I added additional details and decoration during the wax stage of the process so there are small individual differences between each of the casts.

The short Hebrew story of Ruth and Naomi is an ancient one. It can be found as the Book of Ruth in the Torah and in the old Testament of the Bible. I’ve tried to depict a moving and declamatory moment in the narrative where the younger of the two widows, Naomi’s daughter in law says:

Don’t urge me to leave you or to turn back from you. Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay. Your people will be my people and your God my God. Where you die I will die, and there I will be buried. May the Lord deal with me, be it ever so severely, if even death separates you and me.