Momentary rewards for the battle of being.

Original version, Smith notebook 28 (c. 1940s) final version c. 1950
I would like to make sculpture that would rise from water and tower in the air– that carried conviction and vision that had not existed before that rose from a natural pool of clear water to sandy shores with rocks and plants that men could view as natural without reverence or awe but to whom such things were natural because they were statements of peaceful pursuit–and joined in the phenomenon of life Emerging from unpolluted water at which men could bathe and animals drink–that harboured fish and clams and all things natural to it I don’t want to repeat the accepted fact, moralize or praise the past or sell a product I want sculpture to show the wonder of man, that flowing water, rocks, clouds, vegetation, have for the man in peace who glories in existence this sculpture will not be the mystical abode of power of wealth of religion Its existence will be its statement It will not be a scorned ornament on a money changer’s temple or a house of fear It will not be a tower of elevators and plumbing with every room rented, deductions, taxes, allowing for depreciation amortization yielding a percentage in dividends It will say that in peace we have time that a man has vision, has been fed, has worked it will not incite greed or war That hands and minds and tools and material made a symbol to the elevation of vision It will not be a pyramid to hide a royal corpse from pillage It has no roof to be supported by burdened maidens It has no bells to beat the heads of sinners or clap the traps of hypocrites, no benediction falls from its lights, no fears from its shadow this vision cannot be of a single mind– a single concept, it is a small tooth in the gear of man, it was the wish incision in a cave, the devotion of a stone hewer at Memphis the hope of a Congo hunter It may be a sculpture to hold in the hand that will not seek to outdo by bulky grandeur which to each man, one at a time, offers a marvel of close communion, a symbol which answers to the holder’s vision, correlates the forms of woman and nature, stimulates the recall sense of pleasurable emotion, that momentarily rewards for the battle of being

In 2006, every night for 14 days I made these images, and represented here are day 1 and day 14. Every night also, I read David Smith's "What is your hope," and Questions to Students. The two questions that always stick with me, of the whole three page list that I still occasionally lose myself in, are:

21. Why do you hesitate--why can you not draw objects as freely as you can write their names and speak words about them?

22. What has caused this mental block? If you can name, dream, recall vision and auras why can’t you draw them? In the conscious set of drawing, who is acting in our unconscious as censor?


If you're looking for something to do this morning, read the whole list here:

http://www.davidsmithestate.org/statements.html