M.L. SNOWDEN SCULPTURE
FOUNDATIONS OF SYNERGY

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M.L. Snowden’s FOUNDATIONS OF SYNERGY is a meticulously crafted chapter for the art of bronze. In this important epoch, Snowden explores powerful geophysical forces which reach out to embrace the spirit of humankind. Accessed through the window of the science of metallurgy, M.L.Snowden is able to extrapolate new and strongly contemporary portraits of ourselves, our earth and our deep relationship with the stellar reaches of the universe. In the sculptures of Gravity, Stasis and particularly Siesmic Ray, we are introduced to imaginative investigations of energy pattern phenomena and physics in ways that bring these otherwise abstract contemplations alive to the senses.

 

Seismic Ray, as a sculptural meditation, expresses M.L. Snowden’s central idea that the very substance of humankind, stars, planetary masses and bronze are created of the same interrelated yet differently arranged elements. Seismic Ray shoots powerfully upward in elegant and clean lines away from the terrestrial impactions depicted in abstract bronze coruscations that characterize other sculptures of the GEOLOGICAL COREIUM. For this is the ethos of a Seismic Ray: it is a jet of pure unbridled seismic energy that rays upwards through the earth. All the force of the upward climb of arcing energy is written in this sculpture that is firmly planted at its base in the grounded and capable support of the lower figure, from which the upper figure rises. The vertical nature of the two tiered composition, which draws its line from a pair of figures placed end to end, artistically intuits the design of naturally occurring seismic energy wave patterns that rise in supported waves traveling through the earth’s mantle.

 

In Seismic Ray, not enough can be said for the mathematical calculation that permits the upper figure to be joined to the lower figure. The calculation results in a particular mortise that carries the entire physical weight of the upper figure within the smallest possible weld point located just over the heart of the lower figure - a structural feat for the art of bronze.

 

The sculpted hands and portraits of Seismic Ray are noteworthy in their fine molding and graceful demeanor. The arc of the ray, seen as an energy spike, is artfully captured in the upper figure’s almost fluid anatomical structure that seems to bend and float as it reaches skyward. And, Seismic Ray, in its evocation of energy, extends out to capture personal reflections on equally riveting and cogent human social patterns. It is possible to see a Seismic Ray pattern in the charitable noble acts of man helping man; of man rising supported within the heart of another; that the great quests of humankind are achieved through team work and that the positive energies of good works and hope can indeed reverberate in triumph. In so many ways, Seismic Ray is a beacon of striving toward enlightenment. As sculpture, it is the physical poem of reaching for a dream.

 

From important roots in the Paris studios of Rodin and Antonin Mercié, Snowden brings to Seismic Ray the glowing luminous platinum Fournier Patina and the touch of the historic Rodin tools that were used to shape the dynamic, inspirational planes of Seismic Ray.