"History is an artery through which flows every story in every language. Once in a great while an event so unspeakable occurs that the narrative ruptures . . . and all our words run out.
I was born in New York State in 1943, a year-an-a-half after the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, and two-and-a-half years before the United States dropped the first atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. In the spring of 2007, I decided to do something to help us heal from the wounds of the Nuclear Age. In the spring of 2009, exactly two years from the day of my first conceptual drawings, Nagasaki Prayerwheel turned for the first time. It is my intention to have this sculpture become a gift from the people of the United States of America to the people of Japan.
Everything about the form of Nagasaki Prayerwheel is meant to support the growth of compassion. The shapes cut through the inner, turning, double-cut drums are, from bottom to top, shapes of Water, Earth, Fire, and Air. Through the upper "windows" you can see the cycle of the phases of the moon. The ball at the top of the sculpture represents the Sun which shines on all the Earth and her beings.
Only after a year of cutting, grinding, and welding the steel was I ready to find the "voice" of Nagasaki Prayerwheel. This process took me all of two months. As the prayerwheel turns, you can hear a ringing, brass carillon whose dominant tones form a G-Major triad. These tones are supported by a hive of overtones and harmonies. Each chime contains a C#, the sound associated with Om, the universal sound. With each rotation, a string attached to the uppoer drum is plucked, and it is the steel itself which resonates. I associated this tone, and each turning, with yet another particular individual whose life has been affected by the shadow of the atomic bomb which was dropped on Nagasaki.
The figure of a child, my dear friend Angelina, is incised in the steel body of the sculpture. This imprint recalls those who were incinerated. This imprint reaches forward with hope.
With each turning, the song of Nagasaki Prayerwheel moves into the world. May you have Peace." --- John Lyon Paul
For more on the making of the Nagasaki Prayerwheel, visit this site:http://johnlyonpaul.com/NAGASAKI-PRAYERWHEEL-1/Nagasaki-Prayerwheel-1/9620887_zLUxf/1/657920621_UBmsg/Original
BIOGRAPHY: John Lyon Paul is married to Katy Gottschalk. They have two grown children, Sarah and Alexander, and a god-daughter, Elizabeth. John and Katy live at Frog Heaven, 27 acres with three ponds and a woods on a hilltop near Ithaca, in the Finger Lakes area of New York State.
John has been creating paintings and sculptures for over 35 years. He works in the large studio he built on their property in the late 1980's. In addition to an art gallery and a materials storeroom, the building has three studios which allow him to move freely among projects involving various processes and in different stages of development.
Many of his works are displayed on his new websitehttp://johnlyonpaul.com
STATEMENT: "The act of walking has been described as a controlled fall in which we lean forward and out-of-balance in order to initiate motion. Once our inertia is broken, we must either take a step or fall on our faces. Making art is like walking. In involves leaning into the unknown, but with a sense of destination. For me, it is like finding my way home through woods and across streams in the darkness of night. All my senses are engaged, but it is upon my inner compass that I must rely.
My path has led me to work in both two and three dimensional forms, and to employ a wide range of materials and processes. Paintings draw us into their worlds. We move through them as in a dream, drawn and released by the pulse of color and the energy of line. Mine grow like crystals. I often think of them as musical. Sculptures take their place among us in the world. We relate to them with our bodies. Mine are magnetized by silence. Their presence witnesses. Their stillness invites us to listen.
My artworks come through me and are shaped by me but they are not primarily about me. They are like the paper on which a seismographic needle records the subtlest shimmer of the floating world while assuming a bedrock substantiallity. They are meditations. My creative process is an act of faith." --JLP
I was born in New York State in 1943, a year-an-a-half after the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, and two-and-a-half years before the United States dropped the first atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. In the spring of 2007, I decided to do something to help us heal from the wounds of the Nuclear Age. In the spring of 2009, exactly two years from the day of my first conceptual drawings, Nagasaki Prayerwheel turned for the first time. It is my intention to have this sculpture become a gift from the people of the United States of America to the people of Japan.
Everything about the form of Nagasaki Prayerwheel is meant to support the growth of compassion. The shapes cut through the inner, turning, double-cut drums are, from bottom to top, shapes of Water, Earth, Fire, and Air. Through the upper "windows" you can see the cycle of the phases of the moon. The ball at the top of the sculpture represents the Sun which shines on all the Earth and her beings.
Only after a year of cutting, grinding, and welding the steel was I ready to find the "voice" of Nagasaki Prayerwheel. This process took me all of two months. As the prayerwheel turns, you can hear a ringing, brass carillon whose dominant tones form a G-Major triad. These tones are supported by a hive of overtones and harmonies. Each chime contains a C#, the sound associated with Om, the universal sound. With each rotation, a string attached to the uppoer drum is plucked, and it is the steel itself which resonates. I associated this tone, and each turning, with yet another particular individual whose life has been affected by the shadow of the atomic bomb which was dropped on Nagasaki.
The figure of a child, my dear friend Angelina, is incised in the steel body of the sculpture. This imprint recalls those who were incinerated. This imprint reaches forward with hope.
With each turning, the song of Nagasaki Prayerwheel moves into the world. May you have Peace." --- John Lyon Paul
For more on the making of the Nagasaki Prayerwheel, visit this site:http://johnlyonpaul.com/NAGASAKI-PRAYERWHEEL-1/Nagasaki-Prayerwheel-1/9620887_zLUxf/1/657920621_UBmsg/Original
BIOGRAPHY: John Lyon Paul is married to Katy Gottschalk. They have two grown children, Sarah and Alexander, and a god-daughter, Elizabeth. John and Katy live at Frog Heaven, 27 acres with three ponds and a woods on a hilltop near Ithaca, in the Finger Lakes area of New York State.
John has been creating paintings and sculptures for over 35 years. He works in the large studio he built on their property in the late 1980's. In addition to an art gallery and a materials storeroom, the building has three studios which allow him to move freely among projects involving various processes and in different stages of development.
Many of his works are displayed on his new websitehttp://johnlyonpaul.com
STATEMENT: "The act of walking has been described as a controlled fall in which we lean forward and out-of-balance in order to initiate motion. Once our inertia is broken, we must either take a step or fall on our faces. Making art is like walking. In involves leaning into the unknown, but with a sense of destination. For me, it is like finding my way home through woods and across streams in the darkness of night. All my senses are engaged, but it is upon my inner compass that I must rely.
My path has led me to work in both two and three dimensional forms, and to employ a wide range of materials and processes. Paintings draw us into their worlds. We move through them as in a dream, drawn and released by the pulse of color and the energy of line. Mine grow like crystals. I often think of them as musical. Sculptures take their place among us in the world. We relate to them with our bodies. Mine are magnetized by silence. Their presence witnesses. Their stillness invites us to listen.
My artworks come through me and are shaped by me but they are not primarily about me. They are like the paper on which a seismographic needle records the subtlest shimmer of the floating world while assuming a bedrock substantiallity. They are meditations. My creative process is an act of faith." --JLP
