When Ginny closed her eyes and saw an image of a bird looking skyward, she had no idea that she was about to embark on a process that would take many years to complete and involve a fundamental shift in her whole way of thinking.
Having set aside her love of sculpture after leaving Art School in 1979, she kept putting the image aside. When she could resist it no longer, she dug some clay from a cattle dam at the bottom of her rural property and began her search to reproduce the image. The clay had root hairs from a nearby tree in it, but she didn't care, as she knew she had to find that bird
She created a bird that day, but it didn't capture the essence of the image in her mind. That image was majestic, elegant and regal. She set up a work studio and with bought clay, made bird after bird after bird.
It was a fascinating process, and looking back on it, she now realises that the form she was looking for was not difficult to recreate. What was difficult was the process she went through to enable her to think in the way that facilitated its creation.
At the start of the process, she imposed her thoughts onto the clay. When this didn't work, she began to see the bird - its shape, contours and shadows - in the clay itself. Then she began to extract the bird from the clay, rather than forcing the clay into a bird.
The eradication and replacement of her original way of thinking took place over a number of years, with the new approach gradually filtering into other areas of her life. Instead of making assumptions about things and projecting her feelings onto them, she began to see that it is important to accept things as they are and to see the beauty in those things for themselves. Also, she began to observe both the environment around her and the feelings within her, to find solutions to problems, in the same way that she found the form of the bird within the clay.
She looked to the environment when she was having difficulty with the lower part of "the Calling" and in that place of heightened sensitivity,
something interesting happened. Something that eventually solved the problem. A fantail flew a few centimetres away from her face. She found this interesting
because she had previously thought that the fantail shape would look good at the base of "The Calling".
Then, even though it had never happened before,
a fantail flew into her house. Finally, when she was on a walk, she discovered a fossil, which had perfectly formed "fantail" shape indentations in it.
These marks helped her to transfer the fantail shape in her mind into the clay.
Likewise during a period of considerable anxiety about choosing the right colour for the works, she studied and observed her own self. For she had come to understand that solutions become more apparent during particular states of mind, and that the right solution was imperative because the wrong colour could destroy the work by taking the eye away from it. Thanks to an inspiring conversation about something completely unrelated she revisited her difficulties and a solution became immediately apparent. She would ask Andy O'Boyle (of Monument Sculpture Foundry Ltd), where she takes her work for casting, to be responsible for choosing the colours. For Andy, a sculptor himself, is an expert in patinas and their application, which is considered an art form in itself.
Then six years after seeing the original image in her mind, something unique and wonderful happened. She saw nine grey herons flying above her. She found this to be exhilarating because she had never seen so many of these beautiful birds flying together and also it confirmed the decision she had made earlier that day to hold an exhibition made up of nine sculptures to be known as her "Spirit of the Bird" series.
Ginny, a member of the Baha'i Faith, believes that our purpose in life is to grow and develop spiritually, both individually and collectively. Her work represents aspects of the spiritual journey.
At this stage Ginny has completed three works ready for the exhibition. These works - "The Calling", "Descent" and "Reveal" are currently for sale. She is now creating her fourth sculpture in her "Spirit of the Bird" series.
Ginny, who is also an author of a book "Overcoming Difficulties" (George Ronald Publisher Ltd), works in a small Northland town in New Zealand.