ML photos on Flickr

Lunas highlights M.L. Snowden’s Stellar Sphere Group of the Celestial Array, and joins Polaris, Solaris, Heliocore, Meteorite and Star Tracer as important milestones for the art of lost wax bronze casting. Through the dramatic sculptures of the Stellar Sphere, the artist invites us to explore a series of deeply personal meditations upon the celestial nature of candescent bodies that directly impact planet earth and human perception. Touring the Stellar Sphere Group in brief, we are able to come to the realization that Polaris is an exquisite energy map of the heart of the visible North Star; Solaris is a portrait of our Sun’s radiant nucleus; Heliocore is a one-of-a kind evocation of a single light ray of the Sun; Meteorite explores a fiery celestial meteor entering Earth’s atmosphere; Star Tracer evokes the elliptical light path of near-Earth orbiting comets; and Lunas is a portrait of moonlight. The sculptures of Stellar Sphere form geological meditations upon sources of light visible within our immediate universe.

Lunas, as a sculptural meditation, expresses M.L. Snowden’s central idea that the very substance of humankind, stars, planetary masses and bronze are created of the same interrelated yet differently arranged elements. Yet, Lunas goes farther in exploring the concept of the Moon as a reflector of a portion of the Sun’s energy. While expressing the accretion of mass attendant on planetary Moon formation - an accretion related to the art of sculpture itself - and, removed from the intense gestural dynamic of Solaris, Lunas floats in a silvered arc of reflection that deeply considers states of mood, energy and luminous radiance across the creative cosmic panoply.

Using no models or references to express form, Snowden sculpts Lunas in a profound mood of mystery and inspiration evoking a vibrant lassitude that communicates something inexpressible within its contemplation.

Lunas has been sculpted by Snowden into new levels of metallurgical virtuosity. With exquisite artistic care, Lunas’s levitated weight burgeons from the churning of a cratered anatomy that has resolved into an awakened sense of peace. A feeling of aspiration seems to light this enigmatic mirror of the Stellar Sphere. Lunas is that particular sculpture that optically guides the viewer’s eye over lines of textural form that constantly regroups and invites reappraisal. It is a sculpture the eye revisits again and again as changing light sources upon Lunas divulge sequences of revelation. M.L. Snowden invented the protocols and specific foundry wax that makes the casting of Lunas possible.

From important roots in the Paris studios of Rodin and Antonin Mercié, Snowden brings to Lunas the glowing luminous platinum Fournier Patina and the touch of the historic Rodin tools that were used to shape the dynamic, immortal planes of Lunas.

ABOUT THE ARTIST...

M.L. Snowden is a third generation protégé of the great French sculptor, Auguste Rodin and the inheritor of Rodin’s sculptural techniques and original sculpting tools, which she uses in her own work. Her sculpture has been shown in museums around the world and is in the permanent collection of The White House. Snowden has received numerous awards including being named the world winner of the 1992 International Rodin Competition in Tokyo, Japan. In 1989, at the age of 36, Snowden was awarded the National Sculpture Society’s inaugural Alex Ettl Grant for “Lifetime Achievement in American Sculpture.” Snowden’s commissions include the Main Altar of the $200 million Los Angeles Cathedral.

ML_WinterCarnival-4285 by New Hampton School