The Bodgery

"Foundation Piece"
ceramic-mixed media sculpture
30'" x 24"
2026
Artist: Tom Oele

Artist Statement:
My grandfather ran and lived on the Michigan Veteran's Facility grounds in Grand Rapids, Mi. I grew up around those buildings, now torn down and replaced. I played in the creek that ran through it with my sister, explored the veteran's cemetery with so so many faceless names. I watched those who came back whole and I watched those who came back almost. When I started this piece I wasn't reaching for metaphor, I was reaching for the ground I came up on.

The large white stone is from Mockingbird Hill, an overgrown part of the Milwaukee Veteran's Hospital grounds. A foundation piece. Discarded. Somebody decided it wasn't useful anymore. A feeling so many of us veterans are also accustomed to. The rock leans into an ambiguous figure now, one meant to hold every gender that walks through the doors of these places. The system that breaks you is the same one you end up leaning on.

The rough black ceramic body is one piece, fired solid. It represents every broken warrior I have watched walk through these places. Myself included. The head is open, an empty vessel where speech and sight used to live. The wires are the multitude of repairs. Dense on one side, simpler on the other. Different injuries get patched differently and you do not always get to choose the medic.

That figure is still standing. Broken. Healing.