Figure 1 – Natural clay over jasper mineral specimen. (c) DE Wolf 2020.

A friend of mine presented me with this wonderful clay on jasper mineral specimen. I loved the abstract nature of it, and Figure 1 is my first attempt at photographing the piece. It is a black and white from an iPhone image turned into a delicate duotone. It is perhaps too contrasty, and I didn’t quite get the very top the way that I wanted it – a bit botched in the process of creating the perfect velvet black background. Still there is something very anthropomorphic about the object, reminiscent, I think, of some ancient fertility goddess. Of course, other angles give you something quite different, and therein lies the beauty!