My sculpture is leaning a little to the left.
As I pile the pennies onto the sculpture, I position them with meaning. Quadrants: left lower is negative, right upper is positive, right lower is falling, left upper is rising.
The rising quadrant has the most pennies so far, and I think that’s a good way to lean. A penny placed there usually means the day turned negatives into positives.
The center point and below it on the midline holds solidity, foundations; the upper midline represents spirit. The points along the midline center are about balance.
While creating the latest sequence of placements, I began to think of this sculpture as a really organic form rather than something with an architecture.
Before I place each penny, I look at the blog post for that day and reflect on how I felt. Then I scan the surface of the sculpture, and the right place usually opens up to my eyes like a blossom.
Pennies pile atop other pennies with similar significance. But it’s increasingly rare that I remember the significance of any specific pennies.
It stuns me how much is forgotten in just a few weeks. The details are no longer distinct. Each day blends with the next like molten copper.
How beautiful that is.
If I live to be 100, I hope that river of copper still runs smoothly through my mind.
Today’s penny is a 2000 because it, like today, is a centennial. Made up of a hundred very fine threads.