The Stuff of Stars
California, black and red marble sculpture.
Arizona, petrified wood, nest.
Minnesota, pipestone cap.
Kansas, limestone fencepost.
Stainless steel base plate.
Scientifically speaking, life on earth probably arrived in microbial form, hop-skip-and-jumping across the universe via meteor, asteroid, comet, and other forms of collision, and dispersal. The tall, Kansas limestone pillar represents a slice of geologic time. The clamshells, and rare, high, centrally located ammonite fossil, showcase basic, protohistoric, early life forms. A thin, red, Minnesota pipestone cap conjures the contour intervals, mesas, and mountain redoubts of a capstone, avian species. The petrified wood “nest,” represents a time, spanning hundreds of millions of years, when Earth was covered in vegetation. The apex, California, black and red marble, “Raptor” shows abundant evidence of microbial, Girvanella cyanobacteria (750 million year old, blue-green algae) in the many thumbprint sized fossils covering the sculpture. Perhaps, those same, “kernels of life” that once seeded the earth may someday reach other planets, borne on the wings of future Raptors, either accidentally, following meteor strikes, skipping asteroid, “extremophile,” impacts (lithopanspermia), a solar supernova, or even by design through future, human space settlement.
California, black and red marble
Arizona, petrified wood
Minnesota pipestone
Kansas limestone fencepost
Stainless steel baseplate
65 x 18”
235 lbs
Completed March, 2026