Sculpture 2007

WELLSPRING, the Heller School, Brandeis University

WELLSPRING, the Heller School, Brandeis University

In addition to telling time with one’s shadow, the sculpture also includes alignments with the rising and setting of summer and winter solstices, equinox and the rising of the star cluster Pleiades and the star Antares.

10′ tall x 17′ long x 2′ wide; corten and cold rolled steel; for a private client in Benson, VT who lives on a hill with a 180 degree view of the eastern mountains. The SUN icon faces the direction of sunrise over these mountains; the raven (WIND) stands for the ravens who frolic and fight nearby and the WATER icon faces the sliver of Lake Champlain seen from the site.

A close-up photo of WELLSPRING reflecting in the glass wall of the new Schneider Building that houses the Heller School at Brandeis University.

The wind symbol is a raven; many ravens soar around the sculpture site on the southern Vermont hill

WELLSPRING is a 12-foot high steel sculpture on the Wallack Family Terrace at the Heller School for Social Policy and Management, Brandeis University, Waltham, MA. I see a black steel brush stroke spiraling upward; to me it symbolizes the jewel of an idea created at the Heller School coming into being and taking off into the world. It reminds me of a Maori word, koru, which means new beginning and is often represented by a young fern newly uncurling from the earth.

TELLING STONES, river boulders, marble and crushed mussel shells; 16′ x 11′ x 2′; Mapua School, Mapua, Nelson, New Zealand. TELLING STONES is the last of the 5-part sculpture series in the World Sculpture Project. All involve alignments with our sun and stars. This sculpture is an analemmatic sundial on which a person’s shadow points to the time.

TELLING STONES was dedicated on December 11, 2007. The Mapua School children led the singing of the New Zealand national anthem, singing with joy and enthusiasm. The ceremony continued with speakers. Vermonter Jim Rader was present and spoke, especially to the children, reminding them of their connections now with other children around the world.