| World Ice Art
Championships Fairbanks, Alaska |
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| Center
of the Universe Ben and Silas Firth |
| Some thoughts
on the meaning of this sculpture and what we were trying to communicate
through it- At the center is a man and woman and a globe, representing mankind and the earth. Behind and above there are planets, stars, nebulae and galaxies- things larger than man and the earth- some of them unimaginably larger and distant. In front and below are things that are tiny, snowflakes and diatoms and the unimaginably small molecules and atoms. In the past man's observation has led him to think of the earth being the physical center of the cosmos. Further observation shows that not even the sun that the earth revolves around is the physical center. Yet from where we stand we look outward into space at unimaginable size and distance. And we look at the microscopic and beyond to that which is unimaginably small. From where we stand we may look with awe in both directions and get the feeling maybe we are somewhere in the middle. The sculpture depicts brokenness in the man and woman and the earth. It also features a cross representing God's remedy for that brokenness through what Jesus accomplished on the cross. However we consider our physical place in the universe; mankind, created male and female in the image of God, is at the center of His attention. |
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| Sketches and clay model | ||
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Psalm 8 O Lord, our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth! who hast set thy glory above the heavens. Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings hast thou ordained strength because of thine enemies, that thou mightest still the enemy and the avenger. When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained; What is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou visitest him? For thou hast made him a little lower than the angels, and hast crowned him with glory and honour. Thou madest him to have dominion over the works of thy hands; thou hast put all things under his feet: All sheep and oxen, yea, and the beasts of the field; The fowl of the air, and the fish of the sea, and whatsoever passeth through the paths of the seas. O Lord our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth!
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