Ode to Joy

ODE TO JOY

Steel 36″h x 15″w x 15″d

Wood base 34″h x 15″w x 15″d

This steel sculpture on a wooden base is one of a triptych: “Ode to Joy (Beethoven), “The New World Symphony” (Dvork) and “Ending On A Positive Note.”

Many say that we live in a noisy world. It is also a musical one.

Lullabies hummed during night hours introduced us to music. If fortunate enough to have hospice care as we die, music may be the last sounds we hear. And between those times we are immersed in song.

Filmmakers and marketers know its power. So do churches.

Then there is another kind of music. We find it when life becomes frenetic and we need to pull apart for a time. Off goes the internet, out come the ear buds. It is then we hear a child breathing, rustling of leaves, the sound of a plane overhead, the wail of a coyote, the ping of a wind chime, or the creak in floor boards. It is all music when we choose to listen.

Beethoven is to my liking. He may not be yours. No matter. My hope is that the sculpture awakens lightsomeness and a sense of joy.

Study – 10 (beauty)

STUDY – 10 (beauty)

Ceramic stoneware

15h x 10w x 7d

A female form with a striking bronze-like, golden, silvered, green tinged glaze.

Burial Vessels

12″ x 6″x 6″

A loved one requested that I sculpt funeral urns for herself and her husband. I declined. How could I do that for loved ones? It seemed macabre. Then, as fortune would have it, I read Richard Dawkins’ haunting thought. “We are going to die, and that makes us the lucky ones.” He referred to the sobering realization that the unlucky have never been born.

“The potential people who could have been here in my place but who will in fact never see the light of day outnumber the sand grains of Arabia. Certainly those unborn ghosts include greater poets than Keats, scientists greater than Newton. We know this because the set of possible people allowed by our DNA so massively exceeds the set of actual people. In the teeth of these stupefying odds it is you and I, in our ordinariness, that are here.”

His words left me with a lingering sense of wonder. They also freed me to work on the vessels that will at some future time hold the remains of loved ones. The pieces took months to make. What at first seemed macabre, turned into an activity that provided extended moments to reflect on the gift of loving relationships.

Wind

Steel 35″ x 35″ x 7″
Wood base 35″ x 10″ x 7″

When the wind stirs, a Native American’s thought turns toward the Great Spirit. May the sound of this wind-chime do the same.

These are the thoughts and this is the prayer of Chief Yellow Lark (Lacota).

Oh, Great Spirit,
whose voice I hear in the winds
and whose breath gives life to all the world, hear me.
I am small and weak.
I need your strength and wisdom.
Let me walk in beauty and make my eyes
ever behold the red and purple sunset.
Make my hands respect the things you have made
and my ears sharp to hear your voice.
Make me wise so that I may understand
the things you have taught my people.
Let me learn the lessons you have hidden
in every leaf and rock.
I seek strength, not to be superior to my brother,
but to fight my greatest enemy – myself.
Make me always ready to come to you
with clean hands and straight eyes,
so when life fades, as the fading sunset,
my spirit will come to you
without shame.

The photo was taken in summer. The piece itself is set in winter. The branches of the tree are bare. The clapper is moved by three feathers. The piece is of steel that rests on an alder wood base.

Joseph

Joseph (steel) 18″ x18″ x 22″
Base (wood) 17″ x 17″ x 17″

Why would anyone name this contemporary sculpture “Joseph?” I reference the father of Jesus.

Statues of the sainted Joseph are frequently saccharine, often in plaster, sometimes plastic, and almost always of a Caucasian.

I have juxtaposed a saw blade, wood, and steel. My effort is to make a piece that is representative of the man, one that has its own beauty while representing a workman that has strength of character. Surely this image of the man is no less accurate, and hopefully more captivating, than a plastic statue.

The massive saw blade is discarded industrial waste. The wood was found among the fallen piñon trees in the hills surrounding Santa Fe. Together these seemingly unrelated discarded pieces make a statement…as does the life of the man named Joseph about whom we know little.

Angelus

Angelus

57″ x 18″ x 6″

Today clocks and watches, Fitbits and iPhones, let us mark time. In bygone days bells did the job. Whether atop churches or town halls they were also used to celebrate as well as to mourn. Though only a child, I’ll not forget the excitement roused by the near constant ringing of bells throughout Baltimore neighborhoods when World War II ended. Neither will I forget their toll during the burial of JFK.
Even in our high tech world, bells have their place. While walking the bustling streets of the financial district of New York bells sounded at noon. Many churches still ring bells three times daily, at 6AM, Noon, and 6PM. That devotion that harkens back to the time when an angel announced to Mary that she would soon conceive. The ringing is an invitation for hearers to pause in the midst of the day’s activities and to recall the sacred mystery in which we are all involved.
This is a door bell, albeit one that makes a statement at anyone’s front door. It is made from discarded industrial waste. You will recognize the bell as a gas cylinder, the type that provides oxygen for patients or acetylene for welders. It has been sawed in half to make a golden bell. A web of steel tubing holds it as well as the green leaves made from pressed steel. The bell rests atop a piece of steel salvaged from a discarded plow blade. Did you notice the bird atop the bell? I sculpted it in solid bronze. The clapper that hangs to the left of the frame is made from a piece of hard wood, following the Buddhist traditions.
This sculpture reminds the hearer that there is something sacred about the person who knocks at their door.

I want to express my gratitude to Doug Adams (the master of bell making with discarded industrial waste) for his inspiration and help.

A Sanctuary

A Sanctuary

11″ x 10″ x 11″

Many have entered the silence of a church, synagogue or mosque to lift their burdens when there was nowhere else in the world to go. They are places of shelter when storms have unraveled every stitch of meaning from their lives.

They are also the place where many of us were blessed as infants, joined in marriage, and from which we will be buried. Sacred places are frontier places where the mystery of life is touched.

For the past month or two I’ve been reading John O’Donahue’s book entitled “Beauty.”

“In all our talk about the institutional church in the West, in our anger and disappointment at its theological blindness and abuse of power and person, we have fatally forgotten the harvest of healing presence that dwells in the house of God. In our desperate search for meaning and healing, we rush through our towns and cities on our way to work, therapy or doctors. We pass by these huge sanctuaries of absolute presence, totally oblivious of the divine welcome that awaits us …” Page 161

This piece of a church on its head is my effort to express O’Donohue’s sentiments in clay. I was influence by a photo of a building impaled on its steeple that appeared years ago in the New York Times’ coverage of an exhibition at the Denver Museum of Art.

Holy Man

H29″ x W14″ x D5″
Steel and Ceramic
Base is flat steel, 19″ x 10″

Contemporary Mexican sculpture has strength, vibrancy, and colors that reflect its varied ancient traditions. Refer to Federico Silva’s work. Click on his website (museofedericosilva.org). Few artists have their own museum. He is one who does. This is a small piece when compared to his. Fashioned in iron and steel is my homage to his muse.

Origins

Origins

14” x 14” x 14”