“Journey”

Bamboo labyrinth
41″ x 41″

“Journey” is the focal point of the work that I created for the September show at the Artists’ Gallery in Lambertville, NJ. This is a bamboo labyrinth, symbolizing a life journey, with the twists and turns, trials, and hidden layers of the human experience. Labyrinths are symbolic pilgrimages, having spiritual or religious significance. These paths are located all over the world, and have been depicted on ancient coins, pottery, basketry, and floor mosaics for about 4000 years. Unlike mazes, wherein the traveler is faced with multiple paths or dead-ends, a labyrinth has a single, possibly difficult, path that always leads to the center.

Follow the bamboo path to the center, and notice along the way that I’m also letting it serve as a sampler to show some of the many directions I could pursue using bamboo as a design element. Let’s stop here for a minute… It’s too apt a symbol to pass up – because two days ago I broke my right arm, a most important tool of the trade! My radius is being held together with not a thorn but a metal plate.

Check back here for the paintings that I’ll be doing for the next few months, with my left hand, and my right when I can manage. Until then, I hope during the month of September you can take a scenic drive along the Delaware River. Stop into the Artists’ Gallery at 18 Bridge St., Lambertville, NJ to see what Charlie Katzenbach and I created for our show “Expressions in Wood, Glass, and Bamboo.” It will be up until September 30.