Pastoral Dreamer In Two parts

Martha's Vineyard, 2015


First installed in 2012, David Phelps sculpture, Pastoral Dreamer, remains in the square outside of Eisenhauer Gallery in Edgartown on Martha's Vineyard.  It is for sale, so just a heads up. 
While I appreciate the whimsy of the piece(s), I wouldn't even have stopped to consider it further had my mother not insisted that I take some pictures of it.

The Workers Prime

 The Workers, Pittsburgh, 2015

 What, Pittsburgh, 2015

Who They Are, Pittsburgh, 2015

A behemoth in steel looms along the river walk on the south side of Pittsburgh.  So much has changed in Pittsburgh since the steel industry faded (it's not gone entirely, but it is no longer a major employer in the area), yet we tend to still honor it, if not outright romanticize it.  I wonder how the steel industrial history will be viewed once my generation - arguably the last generation whose life was impacted by the mills - is gone.  If history has taught me anything, it'll be even more romanticized, with total disregard to how grueling and dangerous the work was, how there were few options for most young men save for the mills and forty plus years of swing shifts until they mercifully expired.

Partial Reclining Figure

Reclining Figure, Close-Up, Columbus, 2014


Henry Moore's sculpture, "Three Piece Reclining Figure:  Draped", as it stands outside of the Columbus Museum of Art in Ohio.  Here I have seemingly cut off the head of the woman, but in truth the artist did not give the work a head.  Like so many pieces of art crafted by men, the female subject lacks a head.  Is this because the artists lacks the skill to render the fine facial features of the female form?  Or is it because he doesn't deem it necessary that she have a head?  It's the Praying Mantis effect in reverse.  While it doesn't always happen, it happens often enough for it to be noticeable.