Reward

Click here to see a blow up of this piece

TITLE OF PIECE: Reward

EDITION: One of a kind

ARTIST: Jeanne K. J. Weiland

DIMENSIONS: Height 18 inches

Base 16 1/4 x 8 3/4 inches

MATERIALS: Mixed media. Head, hands, and feet are polymer clay. The body is leather stuffed with mohair and has a wire armature for posing. The bicycle is primarily brass, and the hardwood floor is of varnished and waxed birch.

ARTIST NOTES: Those of us who find it necessary to diet (and I defy you to find me an individual who doesn't occasionally fall into this category) do so for a variety of reasons. Some wish to enhance cardiovascular performance, a few wish to optimize metabolic function, some are seeking a svelte silhouette, and some, like me, diet so we can eat more. Now, this isn't as ridiculous as it sounds at first...I suspect that those of us who yo-yo diet do so, perhaps unconsciously, so we can be slim enough to eat all the dessert we want without feeling guilty. I fit in this category. In the last 26 years, I have lost 733 pounds. And gained 786. Every time I lose enough pounds to feel good about my success, I reward myself...with a hot fudge sundae, double nut brownie, vanilla malted, angelfood cake with chocolate frosting, peach cobbler, rhubarb upside-down cake (with real whipped cream), apple crisp, and/or Key lime pie. And for some reason, I find myself continuously on a diet to prevent the Jaba the Hut Syndrome (serious medical problem yet to be understood by science). Recently, while visiting a sister, I had the opportunity to reflect on medicine's shortcomings in this regard.

I sat on the sofa, flexing my jaw muscles regularly, and watched Ellen dust...and wax the kitchen floor...and clean the bathroom...and sweep the porch...and touch up the varnish on the baseboard, and I pondered the great Roulette Wheel of Inheritance. Then it came to me...fate had given my dear sister Grandma Kay's brisk metabolism, while Aunt Polly's portly genes had waddled, unchallenged, onto the spiral ladder of my DNA. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have a paper to write for the New England Journal of Medicine...

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For Questions or Comments about the Website E-mail Charlie Weiland

For Questions or Comments about the Artwork please E-mail Jeanne Weiland

This Page updated on 5/1/98