March 1990. Granite, bronze. Dimensions: 88 × 40 × 40 in (224 × 102 × 102 cm). Cannibalized by artist.
Strange Fruit—Close to the Heart grew directly from the experience of my wife’s pregnancy with our first child. Her changing body seemed to me like a wonderful ripe fruit—both physically and conceptually—and extended the ideas of ripeness, production, and reproduction already developing in my Strange Fruit Series. The pear-shaped bronze element suggests the growing fruit within, while the sweeping outer arc describes a much larger fruit-like form.
The small ladder introduces another personal metaphor. As I came to terms with the new reality of becoming a father, it suggested climbing to a new level—a passage into a different stage of life. The sculpture became a way of transforming an intimate experience into a broader image of growth, change, and new life.
March 1990. Granite, bronze. Dimensions: 88 × 40 × 40 in (224 × 102 × 102 cm). Cannibalized by artist.
Strange Fruit—Close to the Heart grew directly from the experience of my wife’s pregnancy with our first child. Her changing body seemed to me like a wonderful ripe fruit—both physically and conceptually—and extended the ideas of ripeness, production, and reproduction already developing in my Strange Fruit Series. The pear-shaped bronze element suggests the growing fruit within, while the sweeping outer arc describes a much larger fruit-like form.
The small ladder introduces another personal metaphor. As I came to terms with the new reality of becoming a father, it suggested climbing to a new level—a passage into a different stage of life. The sculpture became a way of transforming an intimate experience into a broader image of growth, change, and new life.