The message in the December Sculpture of the Month is my year-end, holiday gift to you. May it give you light!
This month’s sculpture belongs to my friend Jody who purchased it at the “Three Fridas” show I held in 1998, at my new BEC Gallery in San Diego. This show united my artwork with the paintings and sculptures of Jo and Lori Andersen, artist friends who live in Tuscon, AZ and whose work also emerges from an intuitive, shamanic source.
Jody knew us all, so she came to San Diego for the show, purchased this sculpture, and during her visit, started seeing the man who later became her husband!
Rekindling the Fire of Eden
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I had just completed Rekindling the Fire of Eden that year, and it marked big transitions in my life: It appeared in the “Three Fridas” show, which solidified the new direction I’d begun when I opened my combined studio/environmental consulting office/gallery. It’s also one of the first pieces I created at the larger scale I now focus on (14” x 22”). The sculpture quickly moved into Jody’s hands, and soon thereafter, she married Noel and left her flower business in L.A. to create an earth-centered retreat facility at her new home in the redwoods north of Santa Cruz. Ever since, Jody has had Rekindling the Fire of Eden hanging outside the entryway to her studio, so I have only seen it during brief visits over the last 23 years. However, she recently left the piece with me for some minor repairs, and I decided to photograph it, so I could share it with you this month! Its message seems particularly appropriate as we move into the darkest phase of the year. It’s an important time to revisit our sources of inspiration and rekindle each of our own “Fires of Eden.” The piece also suggests that we cannot do this rekindling work on our own: animals gather around the renewal flame in celebration of the relighting as the part-human, part-crane figure appears to re-integrate us with the natural world. With the continuous onslaught of upsetting events – climatically, pandemically, politically, and for many of us, personally – we all need tools like this sculpture to keep anxiety at bay and positive thoughts about the future uppermost in our minds. Many of you, in this time of gift giving, want to search out just the thing to delight and inspire your closest family and friends. I would encourage you to consider giving the healing energy of one of my sculptures to someone you love.
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