“Life, in both its spiritual and physical forms, is the greatest mystery of all. The search for understanding and connection on the personal level of immediate ancestry as well as in the broader human context is age-old. This quest combined with expressions in past and present cultural rituals are the basis for this developing ‘Spiritual Chain’ series. With death as the traditional axis, this theme becomes matter-of-fact.
Father / Grandfather / Great-Grandfather
Wood, Glass, Copper, Photographs | 7’ 6” Tall
“In recent years, ‘coded’ materials have become increasingly an important aspect of my work. Stamped with the modern technological processes of their creation, they are imbued with a message-giving power not unlike an archaic cuneiform tablet. Sometimes difficult to identify, they influence the design and joinery of the work and bring to it an important ambiguity. It seems most appropriate to me that they amalgamate into a new form expressing man who is also, in every sense of the word, ‘coded.’
Processional Spirit
Copper, Glass, Granite | 5’ Tall
“Glass plays a very important, deliberate role in this series. In one brief and drastic moment, the glass is lowered into the metal mask and blown, responding to the power of the lungs and the unique program built into each piece. The glass expands — it pushes hard against the seams and pops glistening glass balls through the openings. In this birthing process it gains a fragile but very special living spirit. This is the first body of work with which I have felt a compulsion to keep a close family resemblance between the pieces: while they vary in size, shape and detail, they are physically connected.
Samurai Spirit
Copper, Glass, Granite | 24” High
“Over a period of several months, my son Mark has composed a sound structure composition. We discussed the history of man expressing death and separation through music and ritual. Part of this mood is that pristine moment of birth or death when we must journey alone. Wind intermingled with bell sounds also expresses some of the visceral aspects of this idea.
Keeper of the Sacred Bundle
Wood, Copper, Glass
“We are all part of an ethnic stew simmered in the cauldron of passionately disputed wars or blended by more gentle tides of migration. We call ourselves Scots, Turks or Chinese, ascribing to ourselves national origins that divide rather than unite men. The fundamental bond that transcends these divisions is that inner ‘Spirit Chain,’ through which we are linked together.” –D.A.S.
