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Phil Douglis | all galleries >> Galleries >> Gallery Fifty: Using silhouettes as abstract symbols and metaphors > Celebrating nature, Herberger Theatre Center, Phoenix, Arizona, 2009
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07-FEB-2009

Celebrating nature, Herberger Theatre Center, Phoenix, Arizona, 2009

This is one of several larger than life bronze sculptures created by Arizona sculptor John Henry Waddell in the 1970s. It reaches towards a tree in front of the Herberger Theatre. The entire group of sculptures is called “Dance,” yet this particular figure appears to be celebrating nature itself. It seems to be reaching into the huge branches just beyond reach. By exposing for the sky, I create abstract silhouettes of both the tree and the figure, allowing shape and gesture to speak instead of detail. (To see an image I made of another silhouetted figure in this statuary group in 2007, click on this link:
http://www.pbase.com/image/77956421 )

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Phil Douglis10-Feb-2009 00:25
Thanks, Iris. If we fail to celebrate and applaud nature, we will find ourselves at its mercy. Nature offers life to mankind -- and like this abstracted metaphorical figure, we should treat the natural world not only with joy, but with great respect.
Iris Maybloom (irislm)09-Feb-2009 23:27
Let us all celebrate and applaud nature as joyously as this figure is doing. Another timely and relevant image!
Phil Douglis09-Feb-2009 18:29
Thanks, Carol, for noting the role played by abstraction here. Silhouettes are abstractions -- and abstraction can trigger the human imagination. As you note, each viewer can fill in the details and come to their own conclusion.
Carol E Sandgren09-Feb-2009 02:36
I just love silhouetted images. They reduce the details and leave just the outline of information, and lets each viewer imagine for himself what the image is all about and what it means. Here I see reaching out by the figure to the heavens, as if asking for help from above while being protected by a canopy of hope..
Phil Douglis08-Feb-2009 22:21
If there were two huge branches hanging over my head, I would feel a sense of foreboding as well. The abstraction might contribute to that feeling as well. But the gesture is still one of celebration and acceptance as the figure seems to bathe among the leaves here.
Tim May08-Feb-2009 22:12
A metaphor for our interaction with nature -while there IS a real sense of celebration here - I also feel a sense of foreboding and protection from nature.
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