Description
The Long Moment, edition 1 of 15 by Michael Hermesh
The personal significance of this piece came to me as a complete surprise. I was sculpting with the intent of exploring the theme of father and son. I came to realize that what I was sculpting was actually an exact moment in my past, a very vivid memory. I grew up in small town Saskatchewan, my father used to leave for longer periods to work in the north. One day, about a week before Christmas, my father was again on his way out the front door, I was sitting on the floor looking up at him when I had the strong thought: pay attention and remember your father because you may never see him again. He was dead soon after.
I also became conscious that I am now roughly the age of my father at that time. I realized that as I was sculpting my father I was to some extent doing a self-portrait. That father and child are both part of who I am now. The moment is with me, always. – Michael Hermesh