Passing Storms – Cloud, 2015
Oregon State Hospital, Junction City, OR.
Inspired by the natural environment, Passing Storms portrays the changing weather as metaphor for unpredictable and shifting states of mind. Buddhist philosophy accepts suffering as a part of being human yet Western culture wants to focus only on the sunny and bright side of experience. The dark we ignore and disown, thereby giving it greater power over us than it would have if we embraced the dark as well as the light.
When the viewer looks out over the entry courtyard of Prairie Quad from the surrounding buildings, there appears to be a storm of silver rain moving through the space. Poised and animate, suspended over the space, lines of stainless steel discs and rings of varying lengths catch the light and move gently with the wind. The sense of these lines streaming down, swaying gently is a meditative act of serenity on calm days and an expression of energy when there is more wind. Both these states reflect our interior as well as exterior realities.
Cloud is like the tangle of the brain even as the overall profile and form is that of a cloud. Layers and depths emerge bit by bit as the sun catches the sculpture in stages suggesting the unfathomable and complex depths of thoughts and emotions.
As the residents and visitors move through the Valley and Prairie Quads they see the cloud and rain sculptures subtly change depending on the wind, or the angle of the light and the color of the sky. The art is a medium through which the changeable weather and light is revealed. Light as it plays across the art images embodies reprieve and a moment of grace.
