Ivy
COSM: Chapel of Sacred Mirrors
Wappingers Falls, NY
Height: 6’3”
Build Days: 6
Sculpture #4
Ivy is one of two installations at CoSM, a 40+ acre property off the Hudson, founded by Visionary Artists Alex and Allyson Grey. In the winter of 2018, John Shook, the artist who inspired this path of co-creating with nature, suggested we work on a sculpture together, representing the Divine Child. She would be the “offspring” of Divine Man and Woman (Minerva). Ivy was the first to be built in a pose implying motion. I visioned her around 12-14 years old, playfully jumping through the forest.
Ivy's name, Hedera helix, comes partly from the ancient Greek word, helix, meaning to twist and turn, to spiral. In nature the ivy vine grows spirally, in the helix, like the spiral of life including DNA. Its spiral growth links us to the goddess and the strong life-force pulsing from the Earth.
Ivy represents the embracing and confining female principles of life. Ivy is about exchange. We exchange with everything all the time: even in breathing, we take in oxygen and give out carbon dioxide which the plants need for their photosynthesis. And so it is with everything, we take, and we give.
Ivy represents the wandering of the soul in its search for enlightenment and reminds us to embrace the inner child, to play, explore and celebrate the innocence of freedom.
Ivy is made from sweet birch, ivy, wisteria, honeysuckle, oak, pine, and locust bark. Just like her mama (Minerva), she is covered in hard bark from the locust tree. She is the smallest of all of the goddess sculptures. She is also the only one to date built in co-creation with another artist. The team consisted of myself, John Shook and two assistants.