“The Ghost Within” This piece is deeply connected to the origin story of this series. I have always been an artist but it wasn’t until being haunted by a curse that I started creating my fine art. I was married to a Wicca witch in past decades that through a series of unsuccessful cancer treatments turned to dark sources before she died. In the last years she turned me into a part of her illness as I was encouraging her to survive what was not survivable… she just wanted to experience all she could with the time she had left. She was also diagnosed with profound bipolar disorder at that time which explained a lot but she fought to keep unmanaged. We separated I tried to go on but learned she grew resentful and formally cursed me to never feel physically well unless actively pursuing my art… that I would feel physical pain. She always said she would never do anything but support “my fine art” and at that time that I did not do my art enough. I read this and felt upset but sure enough the curse seemed to come true. Prior to starting my sculpture pieces I started to have one health scare after another, then my spine failed at L34&5…I felt I couldn’t work or even really move. My walking was affected , it felt like my legs worked like a stack of balls on each other…I had been a historical armorer prior to all this one day I had a huge epiphany that I needed to use my skills to make fine art that was not about battle but about the armor we all build and wear through life. That I needed to build up my metaphorical armor and as a theme there was much to say on this. I started sculpting metal again and slowly noticed I could work longer hours and then standing more and thought of the “curse”. I own it now and any time I sit for more than a day or try to be in bed extra hours I am back in pain… while working I feel strong. This piece I made a year or so ago to represent the deal in the curse. The stone figure in the base is me with hands clenched and her ghost comes out of my broken spine holding the hammer( a cast of my actual hammer) out for me to take to get to work… Various metals cast and formed, stone mix approx 7ft tall.