This sculpture is a portal; from here and now on the land, to the away and gone beyond on the distant sea.  Many docks here on mid-coast Maine have a portal at their head, not unlike the torii of old Japan.  The other reference I am making with this sculpture is the history of the site, which was one of a train station on this site at early Hancock; a place of arriving and departing, as through a portal.

There are a variety of motifs that I explore in my sculpture. The portal is one that particularly intrigues me, as are other elements of eclectic reference.  In WHISPERING I have worked with the motif of the ancient Chinese jade object called a cong, or ts’ung tube.  The square of the form is earth; the round cylindrical space through the object is the heavens.  Another inspiration was seeing the cave paintings and sculptures in the French film Cave of Dreams, about a newly discovered cave that goes back 40,000 years. Yet another inspiration is reading about the early stone structures of New England that were utilized for solstitial determination and the different engraved languages associated with these sites.