Man of Two Wars

"The first three heads—Refugee, Thalia, and Archon— convey the emotional environment in which I was raised. I hope that the sculptures are successful enough that you can pick up the emotions rather than my describing them to you in writing. I then turned my gaze on myself and began to recognize my own burdens. The full name of the sculpture is Man of Two Wars: The Battle Within and Without, referring to my experience that I had to fight on both the inside and outside fronts, often at the same time. One front was the external: to build a life across two countries, two careers, and even two marriages. The other was internal: my own psychological issues, which I worked hard to resolve and perhaps, to a large extent, have managed to. My parents and grandparents did not have the option of processing their trauma; they had to ignore it and focus on surviving. Born further away from the physical trauma, and with contemporary resources available to me, I had to undertake the work of understanding and healing whatever I could for my own well-being—and for the quality of life in my family. As to the sculpture, it is inspired by one of the heads of Rodin’s Burghers of Calais. You may know the story of the six burghers who turned themselves over to be hanged during the siege of Calais in 1347. With dignity they marched to their death (and by luck were spared by the pleading of the king’s pregnant wife). In my sculpture I convey a similar agony—perhaps at a low point, perhaps not far from when the healing coalesces and I come out on the other, better side. No doubt my making this sculpture was in itself part of my healing process."