Escaping Time

Michelangelo Cave Carrara Statuario is a mouthful and the name of the marble that I’m currently sculpting  for Creative Pinellas. Marble from this favorite quarry of Michelangelo is said to be 200 million years old. And yet it’s right here in my studio being carved! I continually marvel and wonder about this precious and beautiful chunk of earth beneath my hands and reflect on its ancient past and path, yet I’m at a loss to fathom the immensity of time it holds. I can scroll through the sequential earth ages and eras documented in history but cannot truly comprehend millions of years. What does that feel like when my life spam is nowhere near a nano second as compared. 

When I’m in my studio working on a piece and look up at the clock, I swear it was just a couple of hours earlier. I know time is passing through the sequence of events I perceive yet I know that in my unawareness of time it feels as if it’s  standing still. In fact, I love to forget about time completely when I’m creating my art or doing something I love. Emily Dickinson said “Forever is composed of the nows”. Maybe that’s all I need to understand of time and the millions of years between me and my beautiful stone. 

By Christina Bertsos