I love living in the Sacramento area. There are many benefits to living here including how highly art is valued in the county. This is so obviously seen in the many public art installations. According to SacMag.com, Sacramento has more than 600! You don’t have to look far to see a sculpture or mural in the city. Over the next few weeks, I will be photographing and sharing many of these art pieces here. My hope is that you will go out and visit these works yourself. I encourage you to join me! Share in this pursuit and please comment here.
"A Time To Castaway Stones" by Stephen Kaltenbach
To begin this series, let’s take a look at “A Time to Castaway Stones” by Stephen Kaltenbach. It’s lives downtown at 13th & K across from the Convention Center. This lovely, thought provoking sculpture is one that you not only see but hear. It consists of two large, flowing fountains and in the hot summer sun, the water adds a misty quality to the air. The white ruin like sculpture with its huge human features, reminds me of the many ancient fountains I saw in Rome.
The sculptor, Stephen Kaltenbach, is an accomplished, award winning local artist with several public pieces in the Sacramento area. I was delighted to discover that he is the same artist who created one of my very favorite works at the Crocker – “Portrait of My Father“. Many of Kaltenbach’s works are conceptual in that he is conveying an idea or provoking thought. “A Time to Castaway Stones’ is such a piece. Each of the 4 lengths has one of the following questions: “What have we thought?” “Where are we going?” “What have we wrought?” “How are we loving?”
"What Have We Thought?"
"Where Are We Going?"
"What Have We Wrought?"
"How Are We Loving?"
“Time to Castaway Stones” brings to mind Ecclesiastes 3:5. The New King James version says, “A time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing.” The sculpture causes me to think and question not only our society’s actions but my own daily choices as well. What are your thoughts?
