March 1986. Granite, steel. Dimensions: 72 × 24 × 24 in (183 × 61 × 61 cm).
Private collection - Baltimore, DC
Luna II comes from a period when I was increasingly looking to the skies for inspiration. In 1986 I completed Solstice Calendar, my first large-scale public sculpture focused specifically on the celestial movement of the Earth in relation to the sun. That same year, the much-anticipated return of Halley’s Comet, along with the tragic Challenger disaster and the unforgettable media images of its descent from the sky, further intensified my awareness of the heavens as a realm of both wonder and uncertainty. In Luna II, these ideas appear most directly in the large lunar crescent, the long diagonal element sweeping upward through the composition, and the flame-like forms at their intersection.
Luna II became part of a broader direction in my work in which the moon, sun, night sky, and constellations provided a poetic framework for exploring time, space, movement, and our place within a larger cosmos. Drawings from 1986—including several Luna and Autumn Luna studies—show how actively these ideas were developing. A related celestial concept also informed my proposal that year for a major commission in Boston’s Back Bay, extending these concerns from intimate drawings and sculpture into the scale of public art.
March 1986. Granite, steel. Dimensions: 72 × 24 × 24 in (183 × 61 × 61 cm).
Private collection - Baltimore, DC
Luna II comes from a period when I was increasingly looking to the skies for inspiration. In 1986 I completed Solstice Calendar, my first large-scale public sculpture focused specifically on the celestial movement of the Earth in relation to the sun. That same year, the much-anticipated return of Halley’s Comet, along with the tragic Challenger disaster and the unforgettable media images of its descent from the sky, further intensified my awareness of the heavens as a realm of both wonder and uncertainty. In Luna II, these ideas appear most directly in the large lunar crescent, the long diagonal element sweeping upward through the composition, and the flame-like forms at their intersection.
Luna II became part of a broader direction in my work in which the moon, sun, night sky, and constellations provided a poetic framework for exploring time, space, movement, and our place within a larger cosmos. Drawings from 1986—including several Luna and Autumn Luna studies—show how actively these ideas were developing. A related celestial concept also informed my proposal that year for a major commission in Boston’s Back Bay, extending these concerns from intimate drawings and sculpture into the scale of public art.
pastel drawing
pastel drawing
NASA's Challenger falling in 1986
Boston Back Bay proposal
