DRIFTWOOD SERIES - BOATS

Inevitably, as I get older, I start to think about the how life is a series of stages and in particular the journey from stage to stage. It reminds me of an ocean voyage in a way. The trip can be calm and serene or just as easily a stormy and terrifying affair. I wanted to do a piece to represent movement through those stages of life. I decided to represent this idea using a voyage analogy. I did two pieces with this in mind.

Into the Breakers

Some of life’s journeys are stormy to say the least. When I install this sculpture, I like to hang it at about a 45 degree angle, right side higher. I was thinking about the emotional battering you face when confronting life issues. The image I got was of one of the beach rescue boats on the Australian beaches as they launch the boats into the heavy surf. The boats are almost standing on end as they crash into the waves.

Voyage on the River Styx

Our lives certainly aren’t all turmoil … at least mine isn’t. Most of the time, life seems to gently roll along toward our inevitable conclusion. I thought about pictures I had seen before of an old barge drifting slowly along with Charon poling souls across the River Styx to the gates of the underworld. I fashioned a piece with that in mind. For me, the center bottom driftwood plank feels like a like a dangling oar from the vessel.