Clara - Public Art - Woodworking

For the life of me, I cannot figure out why this draft is shown in such poor quality-- so I apologize. 

I am interested in creating an architectural structure comprised of a hollow form tetrahedron star, fabricated from laser cut composite wood, and supported by three square columns. The hollow form would be roughly 8 feet by 8 feet, and the columns would stand 16 feet tall. 

My initial idea for this project was to carve a series of totems representing the six friends I have had die throughout the past year and half. I came up with the totem forms after emerging from a greif-based-meditation, and was really moved by their likeness to my friend's lingering energetic forms; however, I would rather carve these totems out of wax and cast them in metal than carve them out of wood. Furthermore, I found the concept too personal to justify as a public art piece. Rather, I imagined the totems grounded in an aspen grove on my family's property outside of Centennial, WY... The interconnectedness of the aspen grove and the network of friendships would have been an important aspect of the concept of the piece. 

Once I came up with this idea, I had the misfortune of loosing a lot of inspiration after becoming simultaneously very sick and very sad. I started daydreaming about some of the last times I've felt truly happy and connected to my friends and eventually found inspiration in those warm memories. Pre-COVID19, I spent almost every weekend going to various concerts with my life-long friends in Colorado. Our particular genre of music is electronic-- large-scale electronic music festivals tend to be immersive art experiences that marry the best of sound design, lighting design, sculpture, visual-art and costume. Often times at these experiences, they will have "chill zones" where you can go and relax if the music and atmosphere gets too intense. Depending on the event, these "chill zones" have the potential to be immersive spaces of their own.  

I was getting so stuck on not being a "public artist" that I forgot one of my main goals is to create work for events/experiences as described above and otherwise. 

With the heartache and physical pain I have been navigating, I often feel overwhelmed and in need of my own "chill space." Usually, I cultivate this "space" through my Reiki and energy-work practices. In meditation I frequently visualize my physical body as being surrounded by a large Merkaba/tetrahedron star to protect and ground my energetic field (sorry we're getting a little hippy-woo-woo over here) or I visualize the Merkaba as floating above my crown chakra. 

This design emulates the later visualization, where the tetrahedron star is poised above the crown chakra of all who rest underneath it. The tetrahedron star will be fabricated out of wood which will have the "flower of life" pattern laser cut out of it; thus, the hollow form will be a delightful play of negative space, pattern, light and shadow play. I had a challenging time depicting this in the rendering I created of the piece. The square wooden columns could be replaced with steel bars. I also could imagine the tetrahedron to be painted with a reflective finish so that colored lights could be projected down onto it to deepen the visual complexity of the structure. The work would easily fit into my current visual language with its sharp geometric shapes and the "flower of life" pattern was already featured in my bronze drawer pulls. 

Side note: I know that this form also has connotations to Judaism, but I think my personal connections to it allow me to use it without fear of appropriation.