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 ODE TO AN AMAH
Ode to an Amah, a one of a kind fabric sculpture by Jane Darin.
Three dimensional fine art cloth sculpture Ode to an Amah.
Japanese pearl diver, an Amah in a finely crafted contemporary art piece.
A pearl diver, a collectible one of a kind soft scullpture.
An authentic japanese pearl diver, an amah, represented in this museum quality sculpture.

When I created this piece I was intrigued by the fact that these woman are considered national treasures by their society and do their best diving after fifty. Are you over fifty and feel undervalued by your society?

She was the first piece in my continuing series of works called "Work is Worship" in which I have depicted woman doing simple everyday tasks which contribute to their communities.
  

  
She sold for $1,710.00  
  

 MATERIALS

  • Size: 18" tall figure; 24" overall

  • Face: hand needle sculpted, hand painted silk knit fabric

  • Base: 12" square wood, wire, batting and fabrics

  • Accessories: leather and plastic mask, leather and cardboard tool, cardboard and fabric basket, crocheted cotton lunch sack. twine rope, seashells from Ago Bay in Japan

  • Hair: wool

  • Series:Work is Worship

 

 STORY

This Japanese pearl diver is the first in a series of Work is Worship. She started when I talked to a woman that I met at an exhibit on Pearls. I had made two PEARL NYMPHS for that show.  This woman sent me photos of Japanese pearl divers and some shells from Ago Bay in Japan. As a part of an exhibit entitled In Celebration of the Doll, the Figure in Cloth 1995, she toured many galleries around the United States in 1996.
  
 POEM
Ode to an Amah
              ©Jane Darin 1995

My beloved, you have ever awaited me in the depths of Ago Bay
You call me forth with your eerie whistle
And comfort me with your soft rocking.
I tingle at your caress, mother to daughter
And in the silence of this sea, my separateness dissolves as I long for your wholeness.

Each day I leave my tiny paper house and seek you again 
      in the icy water.
Ever am I eager and ever are you silent.
Yet I know as surely as if you had promised,
One day I will close my eyes to sleep forever, together in our 
       home in the sea.