20”h x 12”w x 4”d

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This piece, inspired by my parents’ 59 years of marriage, celebrates lasting loves that withstand the challenges of life and the passing of time. The background is papered in vintage sheet music featuring love songs, and the red paper with an anatomical heart pattern that rings the interior space is both a continuation of the love theme, and a nod to my father’s profession as an anatomist.  In a circle around the “clock” with the mated elephants at the center, the leaves turn from green to orange to red and then to brown and black, symbolizing the cycle of seasons through which a long marriage moves. To me, the outward-facing kitchen chairs at the base of the piece represent the way in which, over time, a couple shifts from gazing into one another’s eyes to gazing out at the world together, side by side.  The connected circles above the chairs symbolize how two people come to take one another into themselves, becoming something greater than the sum of two parts. It seems to me that this kind of enduring companionship is as sweet and precious as anything we humans can know.

Materials:  Elephant belt buckle, wooden bowl, straw coaster, glass leaves, dollhouse chairs, miniature ceramic table, paper flowers, wooden birds, metal “sticks,” small clock, bottlecaps, silver medallions, plumbing valves, plastic grass, vintage love song sheet music, anatomical heart paper, glitter, crystals, acrylic paints.