The title


The title of my new collection, Woman's Head as Jug, was a gift from Jane Fordham's notebook and for that reason it continues to intrique me. Jane doesn't really know why she noted it down and when I first heard it, I thought of the sculptor Noria Mabasa from South Africa, red earth and healing. 

It suggests an oinochoe (wine jug) maybe 2,000 years old from Greece, an even older jug from Egypt made to hold a mother's milk, jugs from Congo, toby jugs, it suggests women carrying water in gourds, buckets, bowls. It suggests a museum exhibit and ancient history at the same time as the weight of water and clay. 

People ask if it's about emptying yourself, being a provider. I don't have an answer. But the more I think about it, perhaps what attracts me the most is the idea of those two amazing states - full and empty. The need for both.