M.L. SNOWDEN SCULPTURE

Amethyst Geode Arcelleon

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The five works of the Amethyst Geode Arcelleon form an important bridge between terrestrial substance and interplanetary matter. In these glowing bronzes encrusted with natural violet gemstone crystals, we can trace the root of the sculptor’s touch in these rounded and condensed forms. Essential to the chapter of the Terrestrial Forum, the collected works of the Amethyst Geode Arcelleon reach beyond the boundaries of Earth in expressing octaves of forces actively at work in the larger universe.

 

GRAND CENTRAL GEODE CASEMENT

Rising from extraordinary handwork placed upon the natural materials of clay and bronze, the Central Geode forms a meditation on sculpture and its relationship to the larger energies and forces that encourage planet and star formation. Under the compressive strength of M.L. Snowden’s annealing touch, the Grand Central Geode Casement is seen by the sculptor to absorb concentrated energies that roll the sculpture into a conceptualized sphere. Snowden views sculpting clay as a compression of material and energy that mirrors phenomena undergoing compression on a vast scale of increased proportions across parsecs of space. For Snowden, compression shapes the bronze Geode into a sphere reminiscent of a planetoid; further compression of planetary matter contributes to the birth of a candescent star. As advanced polishing sequences of the Fournier patina progress across weeks of chasing, the technique imparts a spiritually directed energy onto and into heart of the bronze that moves to further activate the subcernal glow of the overall sculptural conception. Finishing the Grand Central Geode Casement occurs on subjective and optical levels: When the earth mined ores of the bronze begin to emit a kind of radiance from the hundreds of hours of care that have been lavished on every surface, the artist deems the sculpture complete.

 

The works of the Amethyst Geode Arcelleon enclose the sculptor’s meditation on creational and sculptural forces, and advances these forces one step further through the conceptual fracture of the Grand Central Geode Casement; a fracture resulting in the Inverted; Falling; Stabilized and Impact Fragments. Indeed, if the Fragments are joined together, they theoretically reconstruct a curved lid over the Grand Central Casement. In celebration of Snowden’s successful and experimental invention of merging natural amethyst crystals into direct bronze castings, the sculptor has coined the term Arcelleon to denote a collection of work that has been created from multiple curving segments derived from a single fractured sphere.

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The fracturing and opening up of the Grand Central Geode Casement is an invitation for exploration: Within the rich tapestry of the exposed and deeply private interior, hollows and passages are seen to form cavities into the bronze wall, inviting entry into the sculptor’s chambers of creation. If the Central Casement is imaginatively regarded as a scale reduction of a vast concentrated and cosmic scaled bronze, then every confluence and groove of the Casement is an opportunity to explore mansions and rooms of possibilities. In this extraordinary space, male and female figural energy summaries flow in electrical polarities of connection. Anatomical forms in the process of becoming, collect in the natural anatomy of bronze in the outer portions of the sphere. For the sculptor, imagining the Central Casement at its ultimate enlarged scale becomes a revelation of much of the same topography imagined at a quantum scale reduction. Ultimately for Snowden, the Casement is a vision of the curving bowl of the universe. When viewed at actual scale, the Grand Central Geode Casement ultimately encloses a sense of mystery as it rests with its open side up; offering a portal of entry into dimensional experience.

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