Artist : Kathryn Belzer
Size: 15 cm X 44 cm X 15 cm
Medium: Pavement, trash, needle-sculpted cotton knit BVDs
Photo : Kathryn Belzer
In the winters of 1993 and 1994, I spent a few weeks in Colorado visiting my daughter and her husband. They lived in a new house near the village of Sedalia in the Rockies’ foothills.
Every day I walked a half mile to visit their horses. I observed both the natural environment and the litter that the persons who were encroaching in increasing numbers left behind.
At first I carried bags, one for materials that the area’s recycling program could accommodate, another for trash. I began carrying a bucket as well. The bucket was for art supplies from the ditch.
I remember two finds especially clearly. The first came after the collection was almost adequate to make the figure I had in mind, a young, sincere soul, bravely girding himself against the impact of population pressure. I needed fabric for his face and it had to come from the authentic source–the ditch. It is written, “Seek and ye shall find.” The ditch presented me with the perfect answer in the form of a pair of men’s cotton underpants. Great art requires great courage. Armed with a bucket of hot sudsy water and a stick, I returned to the ditch to claim my prize. I strongly empathized with Peter returning to his grandfather’s with the wolf.
The second big find was nearly a year later, when the figure was complete, but needed a base. Again, for the piece’s integrity, I had to wait for the ditch to offer the right answer. During the passing of the seasons since my last visit, the pavement had broken at a soft place in the road. The piece I needed to give St. Sedalia a solid base was set apart, as if on display just for me.
Sometimes St. Sedalia wears his helmet. Other times he just keeps it handy. It depends on what the situation seems to require.
In 1995, St. Sedalia appeared in A Show of Hands, an annual exhibit of selected work by members of the Nova Scotia Designer Craft Council at the School of Architecture, Technical University of Nova Scotia.
He is now in Anne Hines’ private collection.
