halted states (3)

This presents a different set of issues. It is a ceramic plaque produced by Saskia when she was 5 or 6. Looking at it with the knowledge of what it depicts is challenging in itself, but it must be mind-boggling for anyone coming to it for the first time even to begin to figure out what is happening in the embossed image.

The four "cartouches" on the right, partially joined by curving lines, are flowering shrubs in our front garden. The large central cartouche (three dots and a square) represents a porch, immediately above which is the tiled roof of our house. Top left is a dormer window, and the two complex cartouches bottom left are almost certainly flowers in plant pots. As she is right-handed, one imagines she started on the right-hand side with the flowers in the front garden, gradually running out of space as she progressed leftwards and upwards, running out of space before she "got to" ridge of the roof and the chimneys.

The halted state here is a child's rather wonderful, complex view of her home, locked in terracotta.

Or not, as the case seems to be! It appears that I was some years out, and mistaking the project with one which Gwen did. Saskia corrects me "It was an art project. We all had to design and make a town scene. The circles and squares are windows and doors in the buildings, with two sky scrapers at the back. There are a few houses in the distance on a winding road out of the town."

Mmm, there's a lesson here! Never mistake a schematic for a figurative!