In Love and Soaring

Granite, jade, and cocobolo. 1986, 2011. 7.5″ high plus base. Private collection.
Bronze. 2009. 7.5” high with base. For sale. Bronzes are available at any scale and for any setting.

In Love and Soaring began as a simple game with a mobius strip but presented deeper challenges. How to thrust perceptual energy from the earth to the sky and cycle it back down again? How to express a “mobius” sense and contradict it at the same time?

As the form developed, it acquired a spirit and heart of its own and became a valentine. One side of the sculpture is “In Love” for me, and the other side is “Soaring”. Together, they express the experiential quality of love in my life while I was carving the form.

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Soaring soars for me in two ways. It thrusts “up, up and away” from its connection to the earth, even while remaining rooted to the ground. It also feels ready to take off into the sky.

Here is something interesting to imagine. Zoom In Love and Soaring up to landscape scale, then ride its contours at high speed, as on a motorcycle. When I do that, and I did it all the time I carved the form, my body feels its curvatures. Some contours make me soar and I feel it in my belly, like when we flew over the “tummy teaser” on the McCloud road when I was little. Other contours make me feel many other things.

The original In Love and Soaring was entirely red granite. It broke during shipment to its new owners in California in 2010. In the repair, I carried the same form down past the break and past the original bottom of the sculpture into a new medium, jade, and grounded it to the earth in a different way.

In Love and Soaring is also available in bronze at 33” high.

Check out these short videos of In Love and Soaring illuminated by structured light from a laser.