Sparkflight Studios

 Jim Hodges’ sculptural boulders, Untitled (2011). Source: Walker Art Center, Paul Schmelzer  © All Rights Reserved. One is easily captivated by Jim Hodges' shining boulders, with their brilliant colors and refracting light. The idea behind these pieces came to him during a trip to India. Jim's experiences of a cacophony of color and complex layering: temples flying flags in Rajasthani fields, Ganesha statues painted orange and gold, images of the Hindu deity Hanuman enhanced with red or orange paint, women pouring water as they prayed...  “As you walk amid the sculptures and they are animated by light, they at once seem massive and monumental yet light and buoyant, almost weightless,” Walker executive director Olga Viso wrote. For Hodges, the initial idea came to him quickly, but the process to fabricate the stainless-steel high-gloss skins to each rock, each over 400 million years old, was an intensive and prolonged process. Paul Schmelzer writes: "Seemingly dipped in ...

  Landscape of the Vernal Equinox (III), Paul Nash. National Galleries Scotland. In honor of the transition to spring... This painting depicts Wittenham Clumps, an ancient British camp in Berkshire. The Clumps can be seen in the background; they are two dome-shaped hills with a thick clump of trees on top. Nash had been familiar with the area for many years, since spending family holidays nearby from 1909. He painted the Clumps in a series of dream-like works, three of which present the vernal (or spring) equinox, with the sun and moon depicted simultaneously in the sky. These paintings were intended as poetic metaphors, referring to the mystery and magic of the perpetual cycles of nature. See our recent snow collage on Instagram here .