The Daily Delaney

It's hard to process the big things sometimes. I did this piece about ten years ago. It's in response to something that had happened eight years prior. That's when my friend Lee passed away. He was an amazing creative entity... actor, dancer, writer, singer, catalyst. He could talk anyone into trying anything. He did it with mischievous gleam in his eye and a laugh that seemed to say "This is gonna be fun, but only I know how much fun it's really gonna be". He was the first person i personally knew who had to live with HIV. Unfortunately, he didn't get to live long. I think he made a choice that if he was going to go out, he was going down swinging. He worked so hard in that last year of his life... songs, scripts, shows and always planning for more. I think he pushed himself until he literally burned himself out. In this piece, I'm trying to balance the beauty and tragedy of that act. The cross the figure hangs on is made from artist's materia...

When I was young, my Aunt Lil would take me up the street to play. In my neighborhood, "up the street" meant "Central Park".  We weren't in any way rich, we just lived  up at the top of an old brownstone in a great neighborhood within walking distance to one of the prettiest parks in the world... just like half a million other people. And sooner or later, they all came to the park. It was wide open, quiet, and free. I remember seeing benches filled with little old ladies, sitting in the sun, feeding the birds, catching up with old friends, sharing a little gossip... even in the winter. And they always seemed happy. Some of them might have had money, but most of them probably didn't. But it didn't matter... the park belonged to them. I love doing pieces like this. She's wire on the inside, the body is a rough figure in clay and the clothes are done by stretching out clay with my pasta machine and draping it over the figure like I'm ac...