19,3 cm. [after The Ancient of the Days]

Thinking about cosmology and human creation, I look at the work of William Blake “The Ancient of the Days.”  There, the word “Ancient” indicates that God existed before time began; literally, “before days were.” In Blake’s work, God is crouching in a circular form. His outstretched hand holds a golden compass over the darker void below creating the world. Having in mind the known certainty that I come from a woman; I create a compass-like shape with brass, which is the exact angle between my left pointer finger and thumb. I carve out of clay the distance between those two fingers – the length of which is 19.3 cm. – and embed it in a drywall piece nested in a notebook. This is my private footprint, a minute womb of creation that fills an otherwise empty notebook.