San Diego Fire sculpture commissioned by Brockway and Barbara Clark

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Two years ago, Brockway Clark of San Diego flew me down to visit the  burnt out home of the Stones. The family and I walked through, and  they told me about their experience, and showed me the belongings that had amazingly made it through the furious blast of heat. Most everything had been transformed, and much looked otherworldly, phantom-like shadows of shapes past, or the proud cast iron harp of a piano blushed red by the heat and reduced to a skeleton with the grace of an Okeefe object. And the belongings had all stories- the bike frame that Jack wooed his wife on, cans of coins all melted together, saved from a trip to Mexico, silverware and pewter ware that had fed the growing girls all their lives, picture frames bereft of irreplaceable photos, melted in half by the  fiery hand that snatched it away. And because of the stories they were beautiful, like the family they had belonged to, old friends that  had gone through it all, and yet somehow re-emerged, changed,  recognizable, scarred, but all the more beautiful for their endurance.

When I was there, Jack kept saying he felt the pieces should be about continuum, about the integrity of the past, present and future. So the piece commemorates that vision of triangulation. I thought triangulation was a good theme to work with for the further fact that a triangle is a symbol for heat and power as well. I took the physical  beauty of the piano harp and made that the heart of the piece-

Jack Stone is an instrument maker and his family have music at the center of their life, and so that felt right. I drew from the architectural triangulations of this instrument itself to create a substructure of interlocking triangles which look both flame-like and wing-like. Of course, the phoenix concept has been a part of this, especially since I am a kinetic artist, and so the kinetic element which rises above the structure echoes forms abstracted from phoenix wings, while further echoing the triangles.

Remerge

Jack Stone (left) and Brockway and Barbara Clark (right) at the Dedication of Remerge on December 11th, 2005. This dedication was attended by over two hundred of neighbors, friends, and well-wishers, as well as receiving San Diego television and newspaper coverage. The piece was enthusiastically and emotionally received.

Their story is told by the piece which is from one side chaotic and  wild-looking, like the fire. At the very front, a seared 'transformer' is affixed. But as you walk around it, familiar items come into view, arranged in metaphoric and intimate compositions- their bike rides through the fire composition, but is disconnected then reconnected in a strange new way at the other end. The harp itself is made into a door with hinges and handles from an intimate side, the whole piece humorously pretends to be on furniture wheels, a lock lies broken at the base, pieces invite kinetic interplay, and in the very center, as fragile and delicate as a flower centrally located on a proffered tray made from an old fashioned movie camera loop is a...but the Stones have not yet seen the piece, and will not see it until  it arrives. I don't want to give too much away.

I think that I have been successful in conveying the pathos as well as the transformative journey of bringing all these elements into perspective of our own personal journeys and evolutions, as Jack Stone wanted me to. A measure of that success was the comment made by the mother of one of my welders, that "only a person who has gone through the fire and lost everything can fully understand this" as she circled the  piece, photographing it. It was then that I learned that she and her  son had lost everything in the Inverness fire here in northern  California, the only trace of their home being the frozen river of aluminum that had been a favorite Harley Davidson bike.

Coincidentally enough, her husband was, like Jack Stone, also a renowned instrument maker, -Rick Turner. I thought to tell her that I hadn't lost everything in a fire, but then realized that when my first husband had died, I kept comparing the pain to fire, and so I realized I had. I also realized that in creating this piece I was not only creating art to heal the Stone family, but was finding healing myself,  allowing the art to express the chaos and be painful and sad, as well as humorous, hopeful, and upward/outward/future gesturing.

Healing is embracing the fullness of our human condition.

Other things about the piece you may want to know:  It is 15 feet tall by 9'  in diameter, it is steel and stainless in substructure, it has numerous kinetic and interactive elements, it was a joy to make

 although extremely difficult, and I have named it "Remerge". I will post a photo after the unveiling.