the rhythm of life

A Cincinnati Sculpture

In this large, cast-stone, bas-relief plaque I portray the all encompassing, interconnected energy of life. I have taken two basic shapes, a leaf and a spiral, and used them to visually unite different aspects of life. The fish in the water are leaf-shaped. They stir up turbulence that ripples back to the roots of the tree and courses up to the branches, where the leaf shape reappears in the leaves, which transform into birds, whose leaf-shaped bodies spiral up to the heavens, where clouds echo the shapes of the school of the fish below. The birds fly up to the energy spiral of the sun, winds, or God in the heavens. The spiral, echoed on the surface of the water below, links heavenly energy to water energy, and in a knot in the tree trunk, links earth and plant energy.

In the middle, people join in a line/circle dance. The up-and-down pattern of their linked arms echoes the mountains in the background. These zigzags suggest heart and brain wave recordings--scientific measures of the pulse of life. The location of the spiral knot in the tree is where the head of a dancer would be, making the tree part of the dance. So, earth energy is linked to human energy, a link also suggested by the grasses dancing at the waters edge at the feet of the people. Finally, the spirals in the sculpture depict the pattern we would see if we were looking down from a bird’s-eye-view on the dancers, spiraling around in their infinite celebration of life.

Cast stone edition of 10.                                         Also available in bronze.
52 x 44 x 3 inches.