The materiality, the sensuality of wood offers the possibility of endless exploration and creativity. The flow of the curves I carved into the wood led me to see a connection with the curves of the human body. Picking it up, turning it around, and cradling it led me to use my own hands and arms as the measure for the carving of the arms and hands. The families of the murdered women of Juarez will never feel the loving arms of their mothers, daughters, sisters, aunts and nieces. These women mean nothing to their government officers and the corporations that use their labor at rock bottom prices. The government officials contribute to the violence against women by ignoring the problems and not instituting social programs to protect them. The corporations have all the priviledges but none of the responsibilities of the individual human, the living breathing "corpus." They buy the lives of the workers, but offer nothing to protect those lives - like transportation to and from work across the border. We must change the dehumanization of the corporate mentality and the cult of violence and greed that extends beyond all borders. Each individual, regardless of gender is sacred. http://www.artiszen.com/