10,000 Towers



I first met Aldo Moroni about a million years ago when he made sculptures of the great theatres of the world for the Jeune Lune lobby. Ever since then, I have desperately wanted one of his sculptures. I love the alignment between art and architecture, I love his distinctive style, and I love spending time with him.

So I was especially excited when I saw on his Facebook page that he is doing classes. He has put together classes where people can make their own towers; the ultimate goal is an installation next year where, after everyone has made them and brought them home, they bring them back one day next year for a big art installation. I was especially interested to see that he was offering all-ages and family classes. So, last Saturday Beatrix, Patrick, my dad and I headed over to Aldo's studio and made towers!

It was really the most wonderful day I have had in quite some time. I am pretty intimidated by clay, but Also was generous and helpful in showing us how, and then provided just the amount of freedom/guidance in helping with tower construction and design. Beatrix made a Rapunzel tower, and the rest of us some more traditional ones, all of which had their own wonderful sensibilities.

Aldo's original web page for the class had promised:
Family classes are a great opportunity to share family stories and make art together. In our test classes we discovered that one of the most valuable parts of this experience are the conversations about your family history.  Kids want to know about the great grandpa or the place our family came from. This is an opportunity to create roots in the hearts of your young ones.
To be honest, I thought that was kind of promising a lot, but I was wonderfully surprised that it kind of held true. Working with the clay was a meditative experience, and as we built, we talked about all sorts of things — travel, things Beatrix likes to do, the development of the modern city...

I can't remember a time where I got to spend a few hours just creating something with my family, and the experience was one of the best things I have done in a long time. As excited as I am to see our towers once they are fired, and I'm looking forward to the installation next year, the best part of the experience was just spending that creative time together. I really can't express enough how transformative it was.

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You should do it too! The links above lead you to some of Aldo's pages, and I think he is signing up with Living Social again soon if you like discounts. It would be great to have our towers stand together!

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