This is a wall hanging group. The Canopic Series of sculptures was conceived as a set of containers that preserve a fragment of breath from previous lives. The air on Earth is finite and Brownian Movement of gas particles places a few molecules of air from the breath of billions of creatures from past eons in each breath we take. The neon process involves hermetically sealing rarified air in a glass tube, so in effect it is separated and no longer part of the global breath. This isolation of material that was once part of a living thing is not unlike what the Ancient Egyptians did when they would place vital organs of a mummy in canopic jars. In this work, what was once the mutual breath of people and animals, that may have lived millions of years apart, is now sealed away and made electroluminescent.

Canopic #1 “Breath”

With this piece I was interested in creating a visual link to ancient Egypt which was my source of inspiration. With that in mind, I used blue glass reminiscent of “Egyptian Blue” clay and simple box with white interior to display and protect the tube inside.

Canopic #2 “Split”

I am envisioning a new ritual for commemorating the dead. I have reconfigured the box so that it is split and there are two clear boxes with tubes. In between, is a box covered in glass mosaic which contains the neon transformer. The acrylic and mosaic are now separated, and the acrylic is lit by LED in certain areas to compliment the neon light.

Canopic #3 “Over & Under”

The theme of this work is two worlds: one of the living and one of the dead. The mosaic is gone and replaced by a black box between the two realms.

Canopic #4 “Solar Wind”

This work is a nod to the Leiden Aratea manuscript, which was an ancient vision of the structure of the universe. So planetary orbits are traced in mosaic and solar winds are depicted in golden light. Compositionally, the piece avoids rectangular form and is divided into two parts: An acrylic box containing a neon tube and a box covered in glass mosaic which holds the transformer.