Daddy's boy - Family and a little sand sculpture

In my last post, I wrote that my beautiful wife Clodagh and myself were soon to be parents. Not now, this was in 2015, when that sculpture was made. I thought it may be a good idea to write a bit more about the subject so as to give some context as I continue documenting my sculptures.

We were very excited and I will mention in passing, scared shitless. It would mean there was a lot of growing up to do on my part. I can barely take care of myself and now I was going to have a little mini-me looking up expectantly thinking I knew what I am doing. I didn;t want to let home down. I always find it strange that in most countries you need to get a dog licence if you want to have a dog but having a baby is a free for all and I am not even confident enough to get a dog.

I got home after the project in Oss with two weeks to prepare for the arrival. I had lots to do, like making a kennel and smoothening down all sharp edges, I may not have had any experience as a father but I was going to give it my best shot I could.

Early to the party

Obviously, Fintan didn't get the memo about the two weeks and decided to arrive a week early.

I won't go into the birth as I want to keep this post Safe For Work. I will say however that I was impressed with Clodagh's strength during the whole thing. Obviously, it was a painful experience and she was sure to share that pain with me as she squeezed my hand and dug her nails into the skin. I still bare the scars.

It was over seven hours of grunting and heavy breathing, quite unlike how he was conceived. That just took mere minutes.

Finally, he took his first breath and I said hello. What else could I say through all the tears of happiness? I am sure anyone who had been through this experience can relate to the fact that it was all a bit cloudy. Luckily I took his first photo to share with the family on The Facebook.

This is the only picture of Fintan that I have shared online so far and he has given me permission to use it again in this post. I am a bit protective of his identity and will leave it up to him to share more when he comes of age. I am not paranoid but I really believe it is his decision if he wants to be online or not especially with all the weirdos both corporate and private data mining.

Fintan is now six and a half. He has his own hive account @bigtooth (he choose the name and I have his account For now for when he get older), it is following my voting trail so as to build it up until he is ready to start posting).

Talking to him now he said I can also share this photo because he believes it's his best side and he looks so cute. He also understands that Hive is good Internet.

A new beginning

Clodagh and Fintan needed to spend a few days in the hospital. I won't go into it here, Maybe @bigtooth will write about it someday but rest assured he had grown up to be the most wonderful and normal child ever, all that I could have ever hoped for. He is very smart even more so than I am. Even at that age. His reading is amazing and I know for a fact that did not come from me.

Due to him being born early I still had a booking for a job that I could fit in the day after his birth. I probably should have cancelled but with my family being cared for in hospital I figured I might as well earn the money and it would give me something to do when I wasn't allowed to be in the hospital.

A quicky

Not the most amazing piece I have ever done. Still, the client was happy. It was for the Boots summer launch of Soltan suncream. I was to work through the party that was going on around me like some sort of circus monkey. I only had about two hours and I was sleep deprived so this is what I came up with.

A long term project

Having a son definitely changed me as a person and artist. I am now carving for two, well three really, the family unit. I have had to let certain freedoms go and I gladly have done so. This little baby would become the most important thing I have ever created and I don't want to mess it up. So far so good, With 6 and a half years into the project I have learned a few things and am very proud of him. Clodagh and I don't always agree on the means but we do on the ends. We make a great team.

Edit~ Dang nabbit! I actually meant to make @bigtooth the 100% beneficiary of this post. I will do at payout.

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Ps

Thanks for reading. I use PeakD to document my work as an ephemeral Sculptor of sand, snow and ice, amongst other things. This will hopefully give it a new life on the Hive Blockchain. Below you will find some of my recent posts.

A drink with an Alien - sand sculpture

Bright ideas - sand sculpture

Freaky Foot - sand raking

I hope you'll join me again soon
@ammonite

If you would like to support me

Bitcoin: bc1qp4lfg0ttz66nesgff8fd5unglg9y0l2jy53j36
Ethereum: 0x6abaE039b9BDFB67495A0588cb90F9EAF5f7556c
Eos: ammonitearts

I am also starting to create NFTs of my sculptures and welcome you to my gallery where you can own a bit of ephemeral sculpture history