Members of indigenous Gurung community wearing traditional attire takes part with others in a New Year celebration ceremony known as “Tamu Lhosar” in Kathmandu on December 30, 2022. (Photo by Prakash Mathema/AFP Photo)

Workers hang hundreds of color-dyed sheets of cloth on a bamboo framework to dry in a dyeing factory in Narayanganj, Bangladesh on May 23, 2023. The drying process usually takes 4 hours, with each set of 200 pieces at a time to dry in temperatures over 42 degrees Celsius. Workers use hats for protection from the scorching heat because they have to constantly turn the colorful fabrics so that they dry perfectly in the sunlight. (Photo by Joy Saha/ZUMA Press Wire/Rex Features/Shutterstock)

A trained monkey rides a toy cycle during a Topeng Monyet (Monkey Mask) show at a densely populated area in Depok on the outskirts of Jakarta, Indonesia, on May 18, 2024. (Photo by Ajeng Dinar Ulfiana/Reuters)

A Hindu woman gives money to an elephant outside the Lord Jagannath temple ahead of the annual Rath Yatra, or chariot procession, in Ahmedabad, India, July 16, 2015. The annual religious procession commemorates a journey by Hindu god Jagannath, his brother Balabhadra and sister Subhadra, in specially made chariots. The annual Rath Yatra is celebrated on July 18. (Photo by Amit Dave/Reuters)

Indians pause to pray after lighting candles as they and other Christians gather to celebrate Christmas at the Sacred Heart Cathedral on Christmas Day, December 25, 2011 in New Delhi, India. (Photo by Daniel Berehulak /Getty Images)

A woman holds her umbrella while walking against strong winds as Typhoon Chan-hom approaches Taiwan, in Taipei, July 10, 2015. (Photo by Pichi Chuang/Reuters)

A follower shows a ring of La Santa Muerte (The Saint of Death), a cult figure often depicted as a skeletal grim reaper, near at the saint's altar at Tepito neighborhood, in Mexico City January 1, 2015. Followers gather at the saint's altar at the start of the new year to leave offerings of apples, flowers, cigarettes, coloured candles and tequila to thank the saint for favours that have been granted and to ask for new ones in the new year. (Photo by Edgard Garrido/Reuters)

Tip Toland is a sculptor and instructor living in the Seattle, Washington area. Her current focus is figurative ceramic sculpture. Tip is represented by the Nancy Margolis Gallery in New York City.

Photo: “Letter to God”, 2011. Stoneware, paint, chalk pastel, hair. (Photo by Tip Toland/Marie-Andrée Côté)