Arabesque

Spirit Form. English Walnut. 1970. 2.5″. Private collection.
Arabesque. Marble 1987. 9″ plus granite base. Private collection. Bronze versions available at any scale.

While my daughter Susan studied ballet in another country, I carved Arabesque. Among many other things, dance figured strongly in our nightly phone conversations. She described balletic movements and I imagined her making them. Later I imagined myself carving them. She made movies in my mind.

A perfect moment of perfect balance,
frozen in a flow of time.

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Seventeen years after I carved Spirit Form in walnut, I imagined tipping it up on one leg, in a balletic pose, and carving it in pink Portuguese marble at a larger scale. That fantasy became Arabesque.

Simplicity of form and balance lent strength and integrity to the form as it developed, allowing it to be more dynamic and expressive. Arabesque has balanced on its nylon pin (pirouetted, actually, because it spins on its base), for more than three decades.

The marble original is unavailable. Bronze versions are available at any scale, for indoor or outdoor settings.

I wrote at length about the creation of this sculpture in the story Arabesque.