Respectful Remembrances
August 30,
2011 at 7:20 pm by Dennis
Yusko
http://blog.timesunion.com/saratogaseen/respectful-remembrances/10393/
Artist
Michelle M. Vara has created a commemorative sculpture with steel from the
World Trade Center that will be permanently displayed inside the Wilton Fire
Department starting Sept. 11, the tenth anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist
attacks.
Vara, of
Wilton, is completing the piece at her Ballard Road Art Studio. She calls the 50”
by 57” sculpture “Respectful Remembrances.” It seeks to unite and uplift, while
honoring the past. Firefighter Ray Baily acquired the metal, and brought it to
Vara.
“As an
artist, it is invigorating to have been given such an eminent opportunity,” she
said. “You can see the sever duress the iron has been through by the bends that
are in it. It encapsulates immense spirit and energy.”
8/30/11 Times Union Pg1
The Wilton Fire Department wanted a piece
that everyone could touch and connect with. Vara incorporated an arched, rusted
piece of Angel iron – representing the escape from Manhattan on the Brooklyn
Bridge, the bending, but not breaking, of strength; a ¾-inch round down post,
intentionally bent, wavy and rusted; a small offshoot of ¼” flat stock; and the
circle – representing inexhaustible implications, unity, and all the forces
-medical, fire, rescue, military – that worked collectively.
“The
remembrance of life lost, given and shared, the innocents of a nation changed
and our troops on the front, even now, are also meant to be implied in the
overall of this piece,” the artist said.
