I was finished “Gotcha” and did not know what to do next. My hands were itchy. There was more I needed to expunge. When I told my kids that I was without inspiration, they decided to help me. They spent that evening positioning themselves in different ways to model what I should do. “How about this?” Ethan came up with some very bizarre positions that would have been a mechanical feat to create a sculpture that would not fall over in the same way he twisted himself. But he did one where he was hugging Jordan. That gave me the idea. An embrace. There is a point when I am doing an art piece that I let the piece take over and stop trying to push my idea onto it. With this piece there were emotions in the bodies that I had not intended, but were truthful if not actually prophetic. Her arms wrapped around his body, almost clinging to him, unable to let go. Her face is caught in a moment of panic. She fears losing him. But he is relaxed, gaze elsewhere. He is not with her. He does not have the intensity and need that she has. And this is what happened. It took me months to come to the realization that it was over. The saddest loss for me was the friendship that had just begun.

~ Kaja Montgomery