October 1988. Granite, stainless. Dimensions: 144 × 76 × 48 in (366 × 193 × 122 cm).
Corporate commission - Washington, DC.
East River Totem was commissioned for a prominent public site in Washington, DC, and represents the culmination of my Totem Series, begun more than a decade earlier. The tall granite form recalls the eroded rock spires that first inspired the series after my move West to Laramie, Wyoming, while the broad stainless-steel base gives the work a more architectural and monumental presence. Rising twelve feet, the sculpture functions as a visual landmark, connecting the weight and permanence of stone with an upward movement toward the sky. The title is a nod to the East Branch of the Sacandaga River that run along my studio property where it was created.
Much as the Billings Trough commission brought my tensegrity investigations to a culmination, East River Totem became the final and most monumental expression of the Totem Series. Its distilled relationship of stone and steel also points toward the increasingly architectural and celestial direction of my later public work, including SCR Sunwork, Artery Sunwork, and Passage. In this sense, the sculpture is both an ending and a transition—bringing together my longstanding concerns with geology, verticality, balance, and the relationship between natural and human-made forms while opening the way toward a new sculptural vocabulary.
October 1988. Granite, stainless. Dimensions: 144 × 76 × 48 in (366 × 193 × 122 cm).
Corporate commission - Washington, DC.
East River Totem was commissioned for a prominent public site in Washington, DC, and represents the culmination of my Totem Series, begun more than a decade earlier. The tall granite form recalls the eroded rock spires that first inspired the series after my move West to Laramie, Wyoming, while the broad stainless-steel base gives the work a more architectural and monumental presence. Rising twelve feet, the sculpture functions as a visual landmark, connecting the weight and permanence of stone with an upward movement toward the sky. The title is a nod to the East Branch of the Sacandaga River that run along my studio property where it was created.
Much as the Billings Trough commission brought my tensegrity investigations to a culmination, East River Totem became the final and most monumental expression of the Totem Series. Its distilled relationship of stone and steel also points toward the increasingly architectural and celestial direction of my later public work, including SCR Sunwork, Artery Sunwork, and Passage. In this sense, the sculpture is both an ending and a transition—bringing together my longstanding concerns with geology, verticality, balance, and the relationship between natural and human-made forms while opening the way toward a new sculptural vocabulary.
with plywood mock-up
JVA with plywood mock-up
JVA at work grinding stainless weld
with completed stainless base
