I design, carve, and cast the pieces myself: they’re wholly original. I cast the statues in “wood mâché,” a material that basically substitutes fine, recycled sawdust for “papier,” with additives that make the pieces extremely hard. The pieces come boxed, and can stand or hang (there's a hook on the back, which is unpainted). Each piece comes with a history card stating: St. Teresa of Avila is one of the most complete examples of balancing a deep spiritual life with a full immersion in the complexities of secular life: business, negotiation, the management of people and money.... One of her recent biographers writes: “It was a wonder, given the complexities of her personal and business transactions, that Teresa had any spiritual life at all.” But she did, and it was one of the most profound in Christian history. Her works, especially "The Interior Castle," are among the most original and insightful ever written about contemplation and interior prayer. In addition to such an expansive interior life, Teresa also founded an order and then established seventeen convents, tasks of monumental complexity: doing the paperwork to establish an order (especially difficult for a woman in that time); the acquisition of land; overseeing large construction projects; acquiring funds; overseeing the finances of the order; traveling. She did all this with extraordinary skill and realism, a sense of humor (she could be irreverently reverent), and determination. (The papal nuncio to Spain, exhausted by Teresa’s negotiating skills, referred to her as a “restless, disobedient, and contumacious female.”) This statue of Teresa shows her at work in her room in one of her convents, her practical side. The dove is a symbol of the divine in which Teresa was so thoroughly immersed. The statue comes with a scroll embedded in the side of the piece, the scroll giving the text of Teresa’s poem “Let Nothing Disturb You.”
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