![\"SamwithEggCropped\"](\"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/170\/2014\/04\/SamwithEggCropped.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\nI found an explanation on the website of the Greater Des Moines Public Art Foundation (http:\/\/dsmpublicartfoundation.org\/public-art\/three-cairns\/<\/a>) .\u00a0 Just below is their great picture of the central cairn\u00a0 at the Des Moines Art Center.\u00a0\u00a0 \u201cCairns,”\u00a0 Public Art tells us, are “stone structures [or markers] that identify a place of great importance. Their dry-stone construction represents an engineering feat as well as artistic creativity. The process of shaping and stacking the stones into a simple oval shape is challenging and intense. The form symbolizes fullness and ripeness, time and energy, loss and endurance.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0 The Foundation also tells us that this is the largest project in the Western Hemisphere by British artist Andy Goldsworthy.<\/p>\n The photo, by Doug Millar, shows the central cairn at home among Iowa grass and trees.\u00a0 Goldworthy’s placement of the two hollow-out stone frames isn\u2019t random.\u00a0 One points toward New York, a matching cairn outside the Neugerger Museum of Art; the other points west to the San\u00a0 Diego Museum of Contemporary Art in La Jolla and the cairn my friend\u2019s son showed off for us.\u00a0\u00a0 The limestone for each comes from long before its physical home was inhabited by people calling their place \u201cIowa.\u201d<\/p>\n Lots going on here.\u00a0\u00a0 Not one place but three, not three places but a continent, not one time but millennia, all crafted with the precise skills of a contemporary worker of stone.\u00a0 I like to imagine the work we do at the university like that.\u00a0 These are exam days, demanding precise thinking and some memory.\u00a0 But, our Mission Statement reminds our students, the point is not the exam or the grade; the point is a lifetime of their citizenship in a world that is vast and beloved of God.<\/p>\n Looks like spring rains today, encouraging grass and flowers and trees to do their thing.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n john st sj<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Tuesday April 22 \u2014\u00a0Three Cairns – sculpture This little boy exploring a large stone egg got me wondering the way art should. \u00a0Two artists here, the\u00a0sculptor and the mom w camera. \u00a0So I emailed his mom back asking about the … Continue reading <\/a><\/p>\n