Given the past four years of political unrest in this country and the intensely divisive nature of the back-and-forth partisanship splattering across all manner of media daily I became quite disenfranchised with the prospect of the survival of this species. I therefore decided to create a candlestick as a format to launch my melancholic narrative. The narrative would incorporate aspects of the known universe specifically within our solar system and then three additional epochs relating to the history of our planet from the formulation of Pangea (the present iteration of the continuing saga of continental plate shifts) on up to the present. The candlestick is fabricated using sterling silver and small amounts of a Japanese metal alloy technique called Mokume Gane used as decorative transitional elements. The objects dimensions are, 30” tall by 9” at the base.

The concept is an homage to Albrecht Dürer’s masterpiece by the same name (and, I guess, his psychological state of mind). I emulated three objects found in his woodcut masterpiece that too relate to Durer’s mind-set: an emaciated Agar hound, a polyhedron, and a device called the, “Magic Square” which is represented on the view illustrated on the sabbatical’s report cover and later on in the assembled photos towards the end of the text body. The rest of my imagery utilizes components often found in my work that relate to Tuscan iconography and some which deals with dreams of armadillo infestations. The central thesis is expounded on the transitional component that forms a cube found two-thirds up from the base. It depicts four epochs: The orbit of Planet 9 which has befuddled astronomers who are left to hypothesize both its existence and its elliptical orbit around the sun; Pangea which is where we humans eventually began within this present-day iteration of seismic shifting; and to Durer’s Magic Square that depicts a mathematical abstract of lines that are horizontal, vertical, diagonal, and inside and outside squares using the numbers from 1 through 16 that once added always equal 34. It also is a nod to the Renaissance which is probably one of the furthermost epic times in the history of this species when volumes of exceptional art were created setting the stage for all the clearer thinking within the art world to finally manifest. The last side of the cube represents (at time of its completion) where we, as humanity, are today. This side is illustrated by the number 45 consumed in Covid-19 virus particles. It reflects a bizarre point in time where fact is overwhelmed and suffocated as it’s pushed aside by implausible fiction and where truth becomes the casualty. This situation is by no means an anomaly to this species and has reared up its ugly yet once again. Perhaps the next candlestick maker will be afforded an opportunity to make it all, right again. Perhaps.