Rocco

ROCCO, 2026 Rocco began as a hollow shell. His surface carries scratches, stitches, remnants of color and areas worn almost back to nothing. I didn’t want to repair those marks. They are the work. Inside him is sand from St Kilda Beach, mixed into cement until this small figure, once almost weightless, became unexpectedly heavy. He carries around fifteen kilograms now. There seemed something right about that. Rock becomes sand through time. Here, the sand becomes solid again. Buried inside his head is a stone I carried down from Cradle Mountain after writing, at the summit, what I wanted my life to become after my marriage ended. There is also a fragment of old tree bark brought home from Kyoto. Different places, different kinds of time, carried inside the same body. I cut into his head and heart and filled those cavities with gold leaf. Most of that gold will never be seen. Only small traces have been allowed back through the surface. That matters. Rocco isn’t about emerging from life untouched. Quite the opposite. Time leaves evidence. People do too. Some things fracture us. Some things become ballast. Eventually we get to decide what remains. The scratches remain. The stitches remain. He carries considerably more weight than he once did. And underneath all of it, the gold was already there. ADDITIONAL CONTEXT Rocco was created by Lee Powell as part of the MunkyMe™ project for Creative Art Therapy Australia (CATA). Each MunkyMe™ begins as a blank sculptural form, which participating artists transform into a unique work. Rocco draws on my earlier painting Unstitched, exploring the marks life leaves behind, the weight we accumulate and the value that remains beneath the surface. Rocco has been donated for auction at the inaugural BlueSky Foundation Launch, taking place on October 29, 2026, at ZINCTT Studios in Melbourne. The event supports the work of Creative Art Therapy Australia and the BlueSky Foundation, helping children and families facing life-limiting illness, grief and loss through creative arts therapy. One original. No reproductions. Creative Art Therapy Australia ⁠https://cata.org.au CATA LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/creative-art-therapy-australia/ BlueSky Foundation Launch, October 29, 2026: ⁠Event details and tickets: https://www.zeffy.com/en-AU/ticketing/blue-sky-foundation-launch