“A Ribbon of Light is a metaphor that honors the libraries function to maintain humanities knowledge and make information accessible to the public. Throughout our history politics and subjective opinions have eroded and even destroyed objective scientific facts and cultural traditions. Thankfully libraries have secured the great works and knowledge produced and accumulated by the great thinkers, poets, authors, historians, and scientists. The institution we call libraries educate us, provide cultural and artistic points of view. Without them our society would be subject to that is from entities that are most powerful, the most money or political persuasion. Libraries are the sanctuary for free thinkers.

Our own genetic code is the information on how our bodies and all living matter are formed. I think that the genome is a perfect analogy to the library. It is the structure that keeps and then provides the information necessary to form and reform ourselves, our values, our ideas, and our advancement. The structures record and keep history intact, so that failed concepts and bodies subject to natural selection either improve or fail to exist.

The Ribbon of Light artwork that I’ve had the honor to make is an abstract representation of DNA. I have placed chains of colored glass within a matrix of clear glass. The glass was first blown and then fused together. The patterns of color go from less to more dense as if duplicating themselves. The glass is assembled into aluminum frameworks that mimic the cell body.”