The Painter Dreaming in the Scholar’s House

There has been a thread of pieces based on poetry throughout my career. This sculpture was inspired by the poem of the same title by Howard Nemerov, the one time poet laureate of the United States. In the fourth section of the poem Nemerov says,

These thoughts have chiefly been about the painter Klee,
About he in our hard time might stand to us
Especially whose lives concern themselves with learning
As patrons of the practical intelligence of art,
And thence as model, modest and humorous in sufferings,
For all research that follows spirit where it goes.

When intelligence is devalued and superficiality is revered, we as artists must stand strong and be a beacon for humanity.