M.L. SNOWDEN SCULPTURE
STELLAR SPHERE GROUP

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Sirius shapes a central cornerstone of M.L. Snowden’s Celestial Array, joining with Meteorite, Lunas, Heliocore , Solaris and Polaris to form the Stellar Sphere Group - a collection of sculpture that forms an advanced chapter for the art of lost wax bronze. Snowden’s bronze captures a meditation on the brightest candescent star that lights the heavens; the brilliant star called Sirius that has stood as a beacon for humankind since the dawn of history. The rising of Sirius with the Sun (Solaris) foretold to the ancient Egyptians the advent of the annual flooding of the Nile as men traced Sirius’s stellar path that marked the seasons. Sirius stands at the heart of the ancient calendar that underlies our present transformed system of time measurement. Sirius as sculpture for Snowden, becomes a portrait of myriad profiles that configures the relationship of humankind to the stars: not only as a source of observation but upon the deeper elemental substance of our own physicality in relationship to origins of the cosmos.

 

Sirius 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. Within the sculpture Sirius lies the sculptor’s meditation that sees bronze as a gesture of humanity’s impetus to understand the heavens as well as the sculptor’s own personal quest to shape an immediate portrait of the heart of a star. Viewing Sirius, we can follow the expressive gesture of the sculptural kouros reaching toward the goal of a chased bronze arc all the while pinioning its mass on an intricate web of hidden internal welds. In examining Sirius, the composition unfolds as an arched energy tangent forming an ‘S’ that lies at the heart of rotating energy release spirals. Like Polaris, Sirius forms a veritable locus immortalizing this formation that appears across various incarnations through human and cosmic structures.

 

And yet, when we stand before the bronze Sirius in person, it is possible to become aware that the sculpture is more than its physical form. No photograph might have prepared us for the actual experience of the sculpture. Indeed, in beholding Sirius made manifest through an extraordinary sculptural technique, we are able to stand at the same optical vantage point as the sculptor in perceiving the diagrammatical path of curved energy release at the core of stars and the very powering of our own human hands that sequence energy in ways that the sculptor perceives as being octaves of wider stellar phenomena. Snowden’s gift is an invitation into the inner sanctum of her private vision that is in actuality a realm of mutual communication that has the power to deeply engage the viewer.

 

Within the human context, like the sculpture Polaris, Sirius is a sculptural meditation on the power of light to dispel darkness and our own powers that extend outward to make a positive difference on planet Earth - and in the larger frame of space. The scale of the hands and their relationship to gallery light changes and begins to delineate and take on advanced complexity. In other showcase lighting, the sculpture appears transformed to glistening simplicity. With our innate ability to contemplate higher planes through a thirst for solutions of elegance, purity, meaning, and life dependant upon the light of our own unique goals, Sirius is a symbol of humankind reaching toward hope. It is above all, sculpture that charts the path of our line upwards and outwards toward spheres of light. As with viewing the stars, the sculpture Sirius may come to form a point of personal inspiration well beyond any suggested interpretation.

 

Sirius has been sculpted by Snowden into new levels of metallurgical virtuosity. M.L. Snowden invented the protocols and specific foundry wax that makes the casting of Sirius possible. From important roots in the Paris studios of Auguste Rodin and Antonin Mercié, Snowden brings to Sirius the glowing luminous platinum Fournier Patina and the touch of the historic Rodin tools that were used to create this unique portrait of a star.