Commissioned for the collection of Richard Olson

This is the first of my duality themed sculptures. The design elements have appeared separately in earlier pieces, but this combination of contrasting angular and curvilinear elements first occurred here. In addition to the meaning associated with this approach, the sculpture also provides for variety of display, if installed on a mantle or along a wall displaying the right or left profile.

This sculpture is about the idea that our brains have two sides, right and left, each hemisphere responsible for different ways of thinking, acting and being – but joined and working together in the whole person. The left brain, the seat of our rational self, is about language, concepts, time, and critical thinking, represented abstractly here (on viewers right) by discrete, angular, overlapping shapes. The right brain, the seat of our creative self, is about image, form, colour, intuition and emotion, represented abstractly here (on the viewers left) by a flowing, curvilinear  treatment. The two sides are connected  about a dome-like element high on the forehead – representing the corpus callosum, a reminder the brain’s hemispheres work together. In my work, this ‘working together’ means the created object contains both beauty and meaning. On a symbolic level, going forward, my work will also contain at least some of both the angular and curvilinear elements.

Publications:  Arabella; Hi Fructose; Branch Magazine: Wild; Ice Floe: International Poetry of the Far North, Summer 2002 (front cover, back cover); Wildlife Art Journal; Trophy Rooms from Around the World: Vol 5; Up Here; From Portrait to Self Portrait: Vol 3