"Balance", a special sculpture commission close to home (video and photos)

The “Balance” commission, in process, shown start to finish. More photos appear at the bottom of this blog post.

In April 2023 I was approached by a friend about the possibility of making a sculpture that would commemorate the career of a public servant in our local community. It was simultaneously a huge honor as well as a somewhat daunting project but I felt up to the challenge, having known this person and at times even worked alongside them for the entirety of the 20-year span of service. It took a couple months to conceptualize a way to combine all the different aspects that needed to be included in the visual narrative and find a way to bring them all together in a unified composition. Eventually I presented this concept and a sketch to the growing list of community members that had pledged to help crowdfund the effort. The feedback was overwhelmingly positive, and so “Balance” was born. Artist statement as follows:

The Task at hand is a seemingly unanswerable question that may succumb to its own weight. How to be a representative of something outside of oneself, a conduit for a big institution, in a tiny community where objectives between the two may vastly differ? How to honor an organization that will at times be at odds with the place where one’s heart and home also reside?

An impossible stack of rocks must somehow stand despite gravity and placement being clearly contrary. To the observer this foundation is destined to topple. It appears to be counterintuitive, lacking fortification and support. Its function, staunch and fixed, is to uphold and support one half of the Task – the assigned mission, the role to play, the voice that originates elsewhere. Opposite these rocks a structure rises, built with the resilience of steel and forged with the intense effort of fire, that stands as an answer and a solution. This construct is the combined result of three separate inputs, each a pillar in and of themselves, each of them a monumental accomplishment. The base is an anchor drilled into rock, a reliable fixed point, a Search and Rescue team built from the ground up. The framework continues upward with coiled snakes around a winged staff, an Emergency Medical Services team, also built from scratch. A dove holding an olive leaf, a universal symbol of diplomacy, perches atop. From this olive leaf dangles the other half of the Task – the life lived, the home built and improved, the community honored and strengthened.

The crux of this interplay is maintaining some level of flexibility, since in life there will always be push and pull. Nature has proven through the ages that in lasting resilience there is always movement, a gentle durability that comes from the willingness to bend without breaking. The effort will certainly sway in response to forces that may try to disrupt it, but with steadfast determination it will never lose its footing and will always return back into its own harmony. This composition stands as a monument to a remarkable balance, painstakingly built, with a lasting legacy of truly astounding accomplishments.

“Balance” after it was installed in its permanent home, the private residence of the individual for whom it was dedicated.

This detail photo shows the intentional separation of the two halves of the yin yang symbol. The concept of the sculpture includes the upper half having mild kinetic properties - the ability to sway a little in the wind due to the leaf springs used in construction, but at rest and undisturbed always returning to it’s harmonious state. Note the large chunk of chalcocite copper ore, the blue-green rock, sourced from the local mountains.

Another slight side view of the piece that illustrates the separation of the two halves of the yin-yang. Note the leaf springs on the right that give the upper half of the symbol the ability to move slightly.