It's Still Life

Ananda (a sculpture)

Circle and study the negative spaces, feel the energy, intention, … the simplicity (is simplicity not the highest form of mastery?). It is called “Ananda” (meaning bliss, rapture). I will never see this sculpture in person, but I’ve seen photographs of it from various angles.

I gasped when I say it the first time; it is motion caught between two breaths; negative space. Not at all static, but suspended. Mid-step, mid-reach, mid-twist. A leg forward as the other pushes off. The torso spiralling upward. An arm reaching. There must be a technical term for this … some invisible (subliminal?) line of energy.

And the driftwood doesn’t imitate human form, but it does speak with its reaching limbs in a recognisable language. Tendons and spine, curves that breathe. It yearns for something just out of its reach.

There’s a stone base at the bottom, but it doesn’t feel idle; it has its own presence; stability and grounding. Perhaps this is the tension that I seek in everything: motion & stillness, lightness & weight.

For me, that is Ananda because bliss is equilibrium.

Clicking this link will reveal photographs of Spira’s sculpture and his article about it. Leave him a comment. Tell your friends.

Some artwork is created using Midjourney AI. Poems/prose ©Misky 2006-2025.