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Rare and Precious Things
My current series of paintings, Rare and Precious Things, has evolved alongside my journey with Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia (CLL), diagnosed in November 2019. Over these years, illness has altered my awareness of time, vulnerability, mortality, and the extraordinary value of ordinary life. It has made me more attentive to what is fragile, what persists, and what cannot be easily explained or measured.
Painting has become a way of entering that altered landscape. It gives form to feelings that resist language—fear, uncertainty, frustration, anger, hope—and allows them to become tangible. Color, texture, gesture, light, and the physical substance of paint become a language of their own. Through painting, I can move beyond the confines of experience and enter a place where emotion can be transformed rather than simply endured.
I have come to think of painting as a form of healing—not necessarily a healing of the body, but a healing of the spirit. Within the act of making, I find moments of stillness, release, curiosity, and possibility. I construct another world, one that exists somewhere between memory, imagination, sensation, and the physical presence of paint. It is a world in which uncertainty is not something to be resolved, but something to be inhabited.
My experience with illness has also profoundly deepened my relationship with nature. I have become a dedicated gardener, removing my lawn and replacing it with an evolving landscape of trees, shrubs, grasses, and flowers. I am drawn to the mysterious intelligence within a seed: the invisible force that awakens it, sends roots downward and growth upward, and gradually transforms something small and seemingly insignificant into a living presence.
Gardening has taught me to pay attention to processes that are both fragile and persistent. Growth, decay, renewal, emergence, and transformation occur continuously around me. The garden has become a place of contemplation and a source of endless imagery. It reminds me that life is not static. It is always becoming.
These observations enter my paintings in unexpected ways. Nature is not simply something I depict; it has become a way of thinking. Organic forms, imagined spaces, fragments of landscape, and ambiguous forms emerge from an interior landscape as much as from the physical world around me. I think of these paintings as mindscapes—multilayered internal landscapes where memory, emotion, imagination, and nature intersect.
They are neither descriptions of particular places nor illustrations of particular experiences. Rather, they are places that exist within the imagination, where the visible and invisible can coexist.
At the same time, Rare and Precious Things reflects a broader concern with the increasingly mediated nature of contemporary experience and artistic expression. Design, marketing, data collection, algorithms, and artificial intelligence have created systems capable of measuring, categorizing, predicting, and influencing human preferences. While these systems can be extraordinarily powerful, I am interested in what may be lost when creativity is increasingly understood through quantifiable outcomes.
Painting occupies a different kind of space. Its value is not always measurable or predictable. It can emerge from intuition, accident, uncertainty, obsession, memory, and the unexpected interaction of materials. It allows chaos and harmony to coexist without requiring one to overcome the other. For me, this unpredictability is not a weakness of painting; it is one of its essential strengths.
Painting, in its essence, embodies a deeply human yearning to make meaning. That yearning exists in the dynamic relationship between image and object, where art can move beyond representation into the realms of myth, nature, memory, and the unknown. Religious myths and their symbolic narratives resonate with my interest in the sacred and the sublime, while scientific ideas concerning light, perception, reality, and consciousness inform my fascination with what lies beneath the visible surface of things.
The natural phenomena that surround us—the play of light, the texture of surfaces, the vastness of space, the organic rhythms of growth and decay—provide another dimension to this visual language. These elements merge with the enigmatic and the familiar, creating an interplay between chaos and order, content and form, material and imagination.
My work draws from Abstract Expressionism as well as Asian and Baroque landscape painting, particularly their expansive and ambiguous approaches to space. These traditions have influenced my understanding of layered space, atmosphere, gesture, light, and the tension between the recognizable and the unknown. I use color, line, space, form, shape, surface, texture, movement, and scale as instruments of expression.
I meticulously consider color saturation, dominance, value, temperature, balance, contrast, and transition, while employing both additive and subtractive techniques. I often work wet on wet, allowing colors and forms to interact, merge, resist, and transform one another. The physical beauty of paint is central to the work. Paint is not simply a means of depicting an idea; it is itself an active and transformative presence.
Within these paintings, elusive and suggestive imagery emerges gradually. A form may suggest a landscape, a biological structure, a remembered place, or something entirely imagined. The viewer may recognize something familiar and then find that recognition slipping away. I am interested in that moment of uncertainty—when perception moves between what is known and what is imagined.
Our imagination is a powerful and boundless resource, but it can also mislead us. We construct realities from fragments of memory, belief, experience, and desire. The paintings occupy this uncertain territory, where perception is continually being formed and re-formed.
In this sense, Rare and Precious Things is not simply a series about illness, nature, technology, or the history of painting. It is an exploration of transformation: the transformation of experience into image, of emotion into material, of chaos into harmony, and of the known world into an imagined one.
The title reflects a heightened awareness of what it means to be alive. The paintings are rooted in an understanding of fragility, but they are not paintings about fragility alone. They are about persistence. They are about the impulse to grow, to transform, to create, and to find beauty even in the presence of uncertainty.
Perhaps this is why these things have become rare and precious to me—not because they are extraordinary, but because I have learned to see the extraordinary within them.
Painting allows me to inhabit that space between darkness and light, fear and possibility, order and chaos, the visible and the invisible. It is a space where certainty gives way to curiosity, where imagination remains open, and where the mystery of existence can remain unresolved.
Dennis Jones
I Want Paintings…
I want paintings that are pregnant with possibility and impossibility.
I want paintings that are full of emotion and thought.
I want paintings that stimulate the imagination.
I want paintings that are illusionary, delusionary, and contradictory.
I want paintings that are mystical, ethereal and otherworldly.
I want paintings that transport you to another universe.
I want paintings that are lushly beautiful and idyllically utopian.
I want paintings that are vulnerable, fearless and heroic.
I want paintings that are relentless and unforgiving.
I want paintings that are a force of nature.
I want paintings that are tumultuous, which pull on your eyes and head, tilt a room, and suck you in.
I want paintings that billow and wail.
I want paintings that are a storm that strafes the earth and sky.
I want paintings that smoke and burn.
I want paintings that are luminous and glow from within.
I want paintings that leave you breathless and wanting more.
I want paintings that sing and dance with delight.
I want paintings that revel in themselves.
I want paintings that are erotic.
I want paintings that awaken your senses.
I want paintings that slip, slide and slither in the dirt.
I want paintings that grow.
I want paintings that are fluid.
I want paintings that I can taste and smell.
I want paintings that nourish.
I want paintings that are animated and alive.
I want paintings that are primordial.
I want paintings that suspend time and disbelief.
I want paintings that are expansive.
I want paintings that touch the infinite…
72”x 84", acrylic, enamel, spray, on canvas, 20265.
17” x 22” x 5” ( base 20” x 9.25” x 9.25”) enamel, spray on multiple wood panels, 2026.
58”x 56”, acrylic, enamel, spray, on canvas, 2026.
68”x 72”, acrylic, enamel, spray, on canvas, 2026.
60”x 60”, acrylic, enamel, spray, on canvas, 2026.
60”x 60”, acrylic, enamel, spray, on canvas, 2026.
60”x 62”, acrylic, enamel, spray, on canvas, 2026.
38” x 54”, acrylic, spray, on canvas, 2026.
56”x 54”, acrylic, spray, on canvas, 2026.
50 pages of images of paintings from my Rare and precious Things series along with a statement and bio.
18” x 23.75”, acrylic, spray, on wood panel, 2026.
18” x 23.75”, acrylic, spray, on wood panel, 2026.
72”x 96", acrylic, enamel, spray, on canvas, 2026.
70”x 84”, acrylic, enamel, spray, on canvas, 2026.
66”x 54”, acrylic, spray, enamel, on canvas, 2026.
62”x 72”, acrylic, enamel, spray, on raw canvas, 2026.
96”× 72”, acrylic, spray, enamel, on canvas, 2026.
72”x 96", acrylic, enamel, spray, on canvas, 2026.
24’’x 42”, acrylic, enamel, spray, on canvas, 2026.
34”x 56”, acrylic, enamel, spray, on canvas, 2026.
20”x 24”, acrylic, spray,on canvas, 2026.
40”x 50”, acrylic, enamel, spray, on canvas, 2026.
20”x 48”, acrylic, enamel, spray, on canvas, 2026.
48”x30”, acrylic, enamel, spray, on canvas, 2026.
32”x 44”, acrylic, enamel, spray, on canvas, 2026.
48”x 48”, acrylic, enamel, spray, on canvas, 2026.
34”x 62”, acrylic, enamel, spray, on canvas, 2026.
38”x 48”, acrylic, spray, on canvas, 2026.
48"x 48", acrylic, enamel, spray, on canvas, 2026.
58”x 40”, acrylic, enamel, spray, on canvas, 2026.
42” x 30”, acrylic, enamel, spray, on canvas, 2026.
24”x 70”, acrylic, enamel, spray, on canvas, 2026.
20”x 30”, (framed size 25”x 37”) acrylic on 100% rag paper, 2025.
7.5” x 9.5” image size (13” x 17” framed under acrylic), acrylic, ink, on 100% rag print paper, 2025.
7.5” x 9.5” image size (13” x 17” framed under acrylic), acrylic, ink, on 100% rag print paper, 2025.
7.5” x 9.5” image size (13” x 17” framed under acrylic), acrylic, ink, on 100% rag print paper, 2025.
7.5” x 9.5” image size (13” x 17” framed under acrylic), acrylic, ink, on 100% rag print paper, 2025.
7.5” x 9.5” image size (13” x 17” framed under acrylic), acrylic, ink, on 100% rag print paper, 2025.
7.5” x 9.5” image size (13” x 17” framed under acrylic), acrylic, ink, on 100% rag print paper, 2025.
7.5” x 9.5” image size (13” x 17” framed under acrylic), acrylic, ink, on 100% rag print paper, 2025.
7.5” x 9.5” image size (13” x 17” framed under acrylic), acrylic, ink, on 100% rag print paper, 2025.
7.5” x 9.5” image size (13” x 17” framed under acrylic), acrylic, ink, on 100% rag print paper, 2025.
7.5” x 9.5” image size (13” x 17” framed under acrylic), acrylic, ink, on 100% rag print paper, 2025.
7.5” x 9.5” image size (13” x 17” framed under acrylic), acrylic, ink, on 100% rag print paper, 2025.
7.5” x 9.5” image size (13” x 17” framed under acrylic), acrylic, ink, on 100% rag print paper, 2025.
84”x72”, acrylic, enamel, spray, on canvas, 2024.
My color frequently shifts between degrees of darkness and light to enhance an illusion of space and emotive qualities in the work. I use an array of colors, which reinforces and compliments such ideas that the inert material of paint itself may be anything, and that the intent of painting is to embrace all of human experiences
38”x 38”, acrylic, enamel, spray, on canvas, 2025.
30”x 99.5”, acrylic, enamel, spray, on canvas, 2025.
I am an atheist. With all the various gods and demons that people have and still believe in through force, indoctrination, socialization, or choice, I cannot bring myself to any rational conclusion of the existence of one supreme being, except for the sense of awe that I experience found in nature. Only in nature do I find an equivalent to what might be considered, God. Instead of all the religious wars that have decimated populations of people, let's finally recognize all the devils and gods for the myths that they are, but allow their often interrelated stories to affect our imaginations for the benefit of all.
62”x 62”, acrylic, enamel, spray, on canvas, 2025.
84”x 62”, acrylic, enamel, spray, on canvas, 2024.
72”x 60”, acrylic, enamel, spray, on canvas, 2024.
38”x 38”, acrylic, enamel, spray, on canvas, 2025.
38”x 38”, acrylic, spray, on canvas, 2025.
72”x 60”, acrylic, enamel, spray, on canvas, 2024.
44”x 48”, acrylic, enamel, spray, on canvas, 2025.
38"x 48", acrylic, enamel, spray, on canvas, 2025.
38”x 50”, acrylic, enamel, spray, on canvas, 2024.
44”x 72”, acrylic, enamel, spray, on canvas, 2025.
32”x 36”, acrylic, enamel, spray, on canvas, 2024.
36”x 30”, acrylic, spray, on canvas, 2025.
30”x 30”, acrylic, enamel, spray, on canvas, 202.
72" x 68", acrylic, enamel, spray, on canvas, 2024.
10”x 10”, acrylic, enamel, spray, on canvas, 2024.
48”x 48”, acrylic, enamel, spray, on canvas, 2024.
54”x 36”, acrylic, enamel, spray, on canvas, 2024.
42”x 38”, acrylic, enamel, spray, on canvas, 2024.
22”x 22”, acrylic, enamel, spray, on canvas, 2025.
30”x 84”, acrylic, spray, on canvas, 2025.
10”x 34”, acrylic, spray, on canvas, 2025.
60”x 72”, acrylic, enamel, spray, on canvas, 2024.
(sold) 30”x 36”, acrylic, enamel, spray, on canvas, 2025.
A chimera has multiple meanings; it may be a horrifying mythical beast that has features of two or more animals, such as a griffin or minotaur; it may refer to genetics where a person could have two sets of DNA, such as from a vanished twin, or a mother that has absorbed the DNA of her lost child; it could also mean a hope or dream that one knows will never materialize; something that is illusory, or delusional; Art holds the word. I find the word is full of fear, wonder, and beauty. The word, 'chimera', is intriguing to me, as it relates to my exploration of myth, science, and the natural world in my, Rare and Precious Things, series of paintings.
68” x48", acrylic, enamel, spray, on canvas, 2024.
A halo is a natural phenomena when a circle of white or colored light appears around the sun, or moon, or other luminous body caused by refraction through ice crystals in the atmosphere. Another meaning of the word halo is a religious symbol that appears as a disk or circle of light surrounding the head of a saint or holy person ro represent their holiness. The Halo Effect is a psychological term used to describe cogitive bias that occurs when a person's overall impression of someone or something is based on a single positive trait.
My paintings bridge the ambiguous space between representation and abstraction. I’m fascinated how the familiar and the unknown slip from one to the other right before my eyes. How a simple gesture, a turn of the wrist with a loaded brush may become a flower, landscape, figure, or some other manifestation of my imagination. Then in the next moment the same mark is nothing at all, but a colored smudge on a surface, and reverts to the plastic material of paint to become some insignificant part of the rectangular object before me. With such an experience, my paintings signify an underlying existential truth of the temporal nature of all things, and yet paradoxically, the painting itself defies such impermanence.
12"x 12", acrylic, enamel, spray, on canvas, 2024.
10”x 24”, acrylic, spray, on canvas, 2024.
12”x 12”, acrylic, enamel, spray, on canvas, 2024.
30”x 84”, acrylic, enamel, spray, on canvas, 2024.
22”x 96”, acrylic, spray, enamel, on canvas, 2025.
60”x 72”, acrylic, enamel, spray, on canvas, 2025.
70"x 70", acrylic, enamel, spray, on canvas, 2025.
22”x 28”, acrylic, spray, on canvas, 2023.
The act of painting embraces the entirety of human expression, driven by its innate longing. This longing thrives within the magnetic connection formed between an image and an object. Painting, in essence, amalgamates the realms of imagination and reality, blending the mysterious with the familiar.
10”x 10”, acrylic, enamel, spray, on canvas, 2024.
16”x 16”, acrylic, spray, on canvas, 2023.
36”x 38”, acrylic, spray, on canvas, 2023.
36” x40”, acrylic, enamel, spray, on canvas, 2024.
4” dia., arcylic, enamel, on pine, 2024.
40”x 120” overall triptych (each panel 40”x 40”), acrylic, spray, on aluminum panels, 2023.
12"x 12", acrylic, enamel, spray, on canvas, 2024.
10”x 10”, acrylic, spray, on canvas, 2023.
84”x 84”, acrylic, spray, on aluminum, 2024.
72”x 60”, acrylic, spray, on canvas, 2025.
72”x 60”, acrylic, spray, on canvas, 2024.
38”x 38”, acrylic, enamel, spray, on canvas, 2024.
32”x 36”, acrylic, spray, on canvas, 2025.
29”x 21”, acrylic, enamel, spray, polyisocynate foam, on MDF and wood, 2025.
16”x 16”, acrylic, spray, on canvas, 2023.
16”x 16”, acrylic, spray, on canvas, 2023.
84”x 84”, acrylic, spray, on aluminum, 2023.
28”x 28”, acrylic, enamel, spray, on canvas, 2024.
11”x 14”, acrylic, spray, on canvas, 2022.
32”x 36”, acrylic, enamel, spray, on canvas, 2025.
54”x 54”, acrylic, enamel, spray, on canvas, 2024.
A painting restores our imagination. Color, form, space, and texture each stimulate our senses, emotions and thought. Curiosity and wonder encourage critical thinking. My paintings invite viewers to step into a space where art can once again become a powerful vehicle for personal reflection, societal dialogue, and the exploration of the profound mysteries that lie beneath the surface of our everyday experience.
72”x 96”, acrylic, spray, on canvas, 2022.
58”x 58”, acrylic, enamel, spray, on canvas, 2024.
12”x 12”, acrylic, enamel, spray, on canvas, 2024.
12”x 12”, acrylic, enamel, spray, on canvas, 2024.
12”x 12”, acrylic, enamel, spray, on canvas, 2024.
10”x 24”, acrylic, enamel, spray, on canvas, 2025.
12”x 12’”, acrylic, spray, on canvas, 2023.
24”x 24”, acrylic, enamel, spray, on canvas, 2025.
26”x 34”, acrylic, enamel, spray, on canvas, 2025.
24”x 48”, acrylic, enamel, spray, on canvas, 20243.
22”x 28”, acrylic, spray, on canvas, 2023.
20”x 14”, acrylic, spray, on canvas, 2023.
26”x 38”, acrylic, enamel, spray, on canvas, 2024.
3.75” dia., arcylic, enamel, on pine, 2024.
4 “ dia., acrylic, enamel, spray, on pine, 2024.
26”x 30”, acrylic, spray, on canvas, 2023.
30”x 36”, acrylic, spray, on canvas, 2023.
10”x 14”, acrylic, spray, on canvas, 2022. SOLD
10.5”x 25”, acrylic, enamel, spray, on basswood, 2024.
44”x 60”, acrylic, spray, on canvas, 2023.
Here is where I find my faith
A renewal of love for myself and humankind
On a continuum born from so many
Both alive and dead
Stretching through time from firelit caves
To a legacy left behind after I'm gone
Stirring some unknown future imagination.
84”x 58", acrylic, enamel, spray, on canvas, 2024.
48”x 48”, acrylic, spray, on canvas, 2023.
20”x 20”, acrylic, enamel, spray, on canvas, 2025.
12”x 12”, acrylic, spray, on canvas, 2024.
22”x 96”, acrylic, enamel, spray, on canvas, 2025.
20”x 20”, acrylic, spray, on canvas, 2023.
29”x 21”, arylic, enamel, spray, polyisocyanate foam, on mdf and wood.
3.75” dia., acrylic, enamel, spray, on pine, 2024.
12”x 46”, acrylic, spray, on canvas, 2023.
34”x 30”, acrylic, spray, on canvas, 2023.
3260”x 3026”, acrylic, spray, on canvas, 2025.
12”x 12’”, acrylic, spray, on canvas, 2023.
18”x 18”, acrylic, spray, on canvas, 2023.
30”x 34”, acrylic, enamel, spray, on canvas, 2025.
72’x 82”, acrylic, spray, on canvas, 2022.
I like the challenge of moving between small and large scale works. The small pieces are intimate and the large scale works envelope me as I'm working, putting me inside the painting, which involves my entire body. I include intimate visual passages within the larger paintings that create a transition from the small scale to the large adding layers to the experience of seeing. The challenge comes from the use of different tools used in each that are relative to the spatial characteristics inherent to the change of scale. I increase my brush sizes and the sizes of spackling tools as I scale up the paintings, by doing so, there is a consistency in my technique of mark making from a small scale to large, which enhances the illusionistic qualities of the work.
12”x 12”, acrylic, spray, on canvas, 2023.
50”x 36”, acrylic, enamel, spray, on canvas, 2024.
30”x 32”, acrylic, spray, on canvas, 2023.
14”x 36”, acrylic, spray, on canvas, 2024.
24”x 30”, acrylic, enamel, spray, on canvas, 2024.
26”x 30”, acrylic, spray, on canvas, 2025.
72”x 72”, acrylic, spray, on canvas, 2023.
12”x 24”, acrylic, spray, on canvas, 2025.
68”x 48”, acrylic, enamel, spray, on canvas, 2024.
52”x 40”, acrylic, enamel, spray, on canvas, 2025.
28”x 48”, acrylic, spray, on canvas, 2023.
46"x 42", acrylic, enamel, spray, on canvas, 2024.
34"x 30", acrylic, enamel, spray, on canvas, 2024.
36”x 30”, acrylic, spray, on canvas, 2023.
14’x 16”, acrylic, spray, on canvas, 2024.
60”x60”, acrylic, spray, on canvas, 2023.
Painting is a goddess that possesses me, I am under her spell.
44”x 60”, acrylic, spray, on canvas, 2023.
9”x 7.25”, acrylic, enamel, spray, on basswood, 2024.
8”x 10”, acrylic, enamel, spray, on basswood, 2024.
21”x 18”x 3.5”, acrylic, enamel, spray, on oak, 2024.
22”x 21”x 2.25”, acrylic, enamel, spray, on oak, 2024.
6.75”x 7.75", acrylic, enamel, on basswood, 2024.
6”x 6.5”, acrylic, enamel, on basswood, 2024.
26”x 34”, acrylic, spray, on canvas, 2023.
12”x 14”, acrylic, spray, on canvas, 2023.
20”x 20”, acrylic, spray, on canvas, 2024.
32”x 32”, acrylic, spray, on canvas, 2023.
16”x 16”, acrylic, spray, on canvas, 2024.
18”x 18”, acrylic, spray, on canvas, 2024.
10”x 12”, acrylic, spray, on canvas, 2024.
62”x 50”, acrylic, spray, on cut canvas fragments, 2023.
24”x18”, ( framed size 31”x 25”), acrylic, ink, charcoal pencil on double matte mylar, mounted to 100% rag board. 2024.
24”x18”, ( framed size 31”x 25”), acrylic, ink, charcoal pencil on double matte mylar, mounted to 100% rag board. 2024.
24”x18”, ( framed size 31”x 25”), acrylic, ink, charcoal pencil on double matte mylar, mounted to 100% rag board. 2024.
18"x 7.5"x 11", acrylic, enamel, spray, on carved wood, 2024.
18"x 7.5"x 11", acrylic, enamel, spray, on carved wood, 2024.
28”x 15”x 10” deep, acrylic, spray, on cedar root, 2023.
30”x 26”x 19” deep, acrylic, spray, over cedar root, 2023.
17”x 10” x 12” deep, acrylic, spray, on carved volcanic rock, steel, limestone, 2024.
17”x 10”x 10”, acrylic, spray, on carved volcanic rock, steel, limestone, 2024.
14”x 10”x 10” deep, acrylic, enamel, spray, on carved volcanic rock, steel, limestone, 2024.
27”x 12”x 13”, acrylic, spray, over carved volcanic rock, limestone, with 39.5”x16”x 16” steel base, 2023.
overall height 66.5”, acrylic, spray, over carved volcanic rock, limestone, on steel base, 2023.
69”x 20”x 8” (overall), polyurethane, acrylic, spray, on carved lava rock, limestone base, 2025.
23.5”x 20”x 8”, polyurethane, acryilic,spray, on carved lava rock, limestone base, 2025.
The image that moved me so regarding Sandra Sagear’s life was picturing her as a small child strapped with leg braces and crutches. I imagined her constant struggle. Struggles that any healthy person would avoid, or may take for granted. Being a parent, I imagined the hardship her family must have endured. Yet Sandra, with the help of family and friends persevered and succeeded. She is a testament to the will of the human spirit. It is with Sandra’s spirit at heart that the Sagear Wall was conceived.
The Sagear Wall consists of several elements. Central to the design is a large, 430 lb. piece of off- white alabaster, carved in relief, depicting Sandra as an adult looking directly at herself as a small child. Sandra, the adult, appears to be reflecting on her life, instructing and encouraging, Sandy, the child, whereas, the child intently listens and looks hopefully to the future. Each figure is reflecting on the other’s stage of life. The off-white alabaster seems to capture Sandra’s fragility and her calm, purity of spirit.
The sculpture is placed upon a stepped front base to recall the difficulty that Sandy would face climbing stairs, before an elevator was installed, in the old, two -story, Plymouth High School that was built in 1917. It was necessary for Sandy to scoot upstairs on her behind to get to her classes that were located on the second floor of the school. The inclusion of the stepped front base subtly emphasizes her daily struggles and diligent perseverance while literally climbing to succeed in her education.
The mural measures approximately nineteen feet across and ten feet tall. Several outlined figures, carved into a wood panel, grace the mural on both sides of the sculpture. The inclusion of these figures suggests the support of family and friends, or other students that may have endured personal hardship. A written biography of Sandra’s life is carved into the panel directly above the alabaster sculpture. The overall coloration of the mural is an off- white, resembling the stone alabaster sculpture, and gives emphasis to Sandra’s calm, determination and strength.
Other sculptural elements include small, child sized crutches and leg braces. These two objects are cast in lead and set upon a low wooden bench located on each side of the alabaster sculpture. The suggestion here is to recall a place that Sandra may have sat to remove and set her crutches and braces at the end of her day. Lead was chosen as a material to suggest weight and burden. The lead material retains evidence of the casting process, its rough appearance further suggesting that these are objects of use with all the marks of their wear.
A frame made of lead surrounds the entire mural. Twenty-six names of past and present students that have endured hardships and succeeded are engraved into the frame.
The completion of the Sagear Wall has brought me great pleasure to know that future generations will be encouraged to appreciate the hardship of others and their individual spirit to succeed. The Sandra Sagear Wall is a reminder to everyone that we each have difficulties in life, some much more so, than others…it reminds us to spread kindness and help each other when and where we can. I have a deep gratitude for, Debra Madonna, who is the driving force behind, and getting me involved in this project. I am also thankful for all the honorees, family, friends, and others that have provided support for its completion.
Dennis Jones
Cover of The Rock, February 2024.
96”x 72”, acrylic, spray, on canvas, 2024. Painting in background on cover of The Rock, February 2024.
The Rock, Feb. 2024
The Rock, Feb. 2024.
The Rock, Feb. 2024.
