NATURAL, 2003

Port Warwick, VA 2003 - Bronze by Fonderia Mariani, Pietrasanta, Italy

When I was creating this monument, I was thinking about how the power of nature intertwines with the essence of humanity. As an artist, I convey my view of the world to an audience. Sometimes, what I make may be different from what the ordinary person thinks. What interested me about the centaur was that it is part human and part animal, horse. The horse aspect of the centaur is strong and powerful, while the human aspect of the centaur is emotional and sensible. The mindset that the original creation of the centaur was that the human man works alongside an animal made it almost natural. 

At the time, I wanted to create a piece that better showed my understanding of human interaction with nature. The centaur allowed for a peaceful combination to occur. My story is that when ordinary people interact, one may not always understand what the other is saying, almost like two halves trying to combine. The natural understanding is what eventually takes over and that is what is created. The human, different from the animal, creates a centaur the mix of the two and the finished product of two different ideas.