Anillos Reborn

When the shattered Anillos was returned to Maria in 2020, she wasn’t sure her sculpture could be restored, but she didn’t want the negative forces that were heating up in our world to win. Anillos means growth rings in Spanish and her original message was about how our life experiences write themselves into the cells of our bodies, as a tree’s experiences are reflected in its rings. Had the vandal destroyed any other sculpture, Maria would have simply let it be lost, but she felt that Anillos’ story wasn’t over yet. She had more to say. About trauma and healing  and recovery and strength.

Still, it took three years before Maria felt ready to open the evidence box of tiny shards. She knew that, if she could recover both face and hands so that Anillos looked like herself, the effort would  be worth it. The task was daunting, but whenever Maria felt tempted to give up, another piece revealed itself and Anillos began to emerge again.

Maria’s plan was to leave the repaired seams visible and to have the restored ceramic sculpture cast in bronze, with gold applied to the seams to emulate kintsugi, the Japanese method of repairing ceramics with gold to embrace imperfection. Unfortunately, the Arts Council of Lake Oswego, who had owned the original ceramic sculpture, didn’t feel they had the funds to replace Anillos with a bronze, so Maria worked with Classic Foundry, in Seattle, and collaborated with the Price Sculpture Forest on Whidbey Island to make her dream come true. Anillos was reborn as a bronze figure with 18K gold highlighting her scars. Welcoming visitors at the entrance to the Price Sculpture Forest, she is surrounded by trees and is more beautiful and stronger than she was before. Maria wants Anillos to carry a hopeful message about healing as an individual and a world.