The highest problem of any art is to cause by appearance the illusion of a higher reality. Goethe
Much of the preserve's geometric metal and granite composite sculpture seeks that higher reality through essential simplicity, balance and whimsical metaphor.
For those interested in sculpture parks that are open to the general public, internationally renowned metal sculptor the late Benbow Bullock created www.artnut.com, a site featuring his work. It is also the definitive site on metal sculpture, with links to more than 500 public sculpture parks and gardens around the world. For superb metal scultpure that is available commercially, visit the site of sculpture wizard Marilyn Kuksht. She is able to fill space so magically with so little material www.kuksht.com .
These thoughts influenced the preserve's creation:
World Is Too Much by William Wordsworth
The world is too much with us: late and soon,
Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers:
Little we see in nature that is ours;
We have given our hearts away, a sordid boon!
The sea that bares her bosom to the moon:
The winds that will be howling at all hours,
and are up-gathered now like sleeping flowers;
For this, for everything, we are out of tune;
It moves us not. - Great God! I'd rather be
A Pagan suckled in a creed outworn;
So might I, standing on this pleasant lea,
Have glimpses that would make me less forlorn;
Have sight of Proteus rising from the sea;
Or hear old Triton blow his wreathed horn.
The Road Not Taken by Robert Frost
Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;
Then the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that passing there
had worn them really about the same,
And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.
I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewere ages and ages hence:
Two roads in a wood, and I--
I took the one less travelled by,
And that has made all the difference.
Max
Madonna
Free
Jawbreaker
Sine Wave
Saint Francis
Swan Bench
See the Sculpture Gallery of this site for other work by sculptor Jim Schnieder.
Schnieder's work has been shown at Culinary Institute of America, Rudd Wine Center, Wine Spectator at Greystone Retaurant, Kaiser Center, San Jose Center for the Performing Arts, NASA Ames Research Center (permanent), Dublin Library, Lawrence Hall of Science, Grace Catheral Nob Hill (permanent), Memorex Corporate Lobby, Filoli Nature Trail (bench), Stanford Old Union, Stanford Linear Accelerator Kavli Cosmology and Particle Research Center, Carmel Mission (permanent), Reno Art Museum (bench), Naval Post Graduate School (Permanent), Kenneth Behring Estate, Brentwood Technology Center, San Ramon Library, Bank of America Corporate Technology Center, San Ramon Dougherty Station Community Center, Contra Costa County Dougherty Station Library, Human Society of Nevada (permanent), and various residences.
Saint Francis at Harold and Linda Spencer Residence
