Rough Draft

Dear Daimaru,
I’ve been spending quite a bit of time with you over the last two weeks. I was always moving, trying to find a deeper meaning within you from all the various angles. I do have some experience with art and attempting to find inner meaning within art. However, I do not have much experience with your type of art. When I first met you, I was very intrigued by you. I gave you the nickname, “whimsical circle,” because that’s what first popped into my head when I had seen you for the very first time. However, when I was able to go home and research you, I found your name means “great circle.” Sadly, this was about all I could find out about you. It is very hard to find information about you on the internet, something that is very surprising at this day in age. We have had our share of time together and have gotten to know each other fairly well. I want to take the time with you today to talk about my interpretation of the argument you make and what it means to me and others who decide to spend time with you.

As we have bonded over the last couple of weeks, I have become comfortable enough with you to call you Daimaru. This, however is not your true name. Your creator, your father, Michael Todd, gave you the name Daimaru XV. This does indeed mean that you have at least 14 additional siblings. Glad I’m not you. You were created in 1981 and you now call the Sculpture Garden of the Sheldon Museum of Art home. Your creator, Michael Todd, was born here in Nebraska, which could be why you were brought back here to live. His fascination with Japanese calligraphy is greatly reflected in you. He has created many great works throughout his career, you of course being one of the best. He wisely chose to make you out of lacquered steel. This was a very considerate of him, considering he was simply thinking of how to make you withstand the harshness of the environmental conditions. However, the steel he created you out of has taken a bit of a beating through the thirty some years you have been out in the environment, but you still stand strong and unfailing. Mike definitely knew what he was doing when he created you.

When I first saw you the day we were all out and about picking sculptures to befriend, I first referred to you as “the whimsical circle.” This nickname of mine is quite appropriate, I believe, because you are quite quirky and unusual for a circle. Your upper half appears to be almost a perfect circle, but then you go to utter chaos towards your bottom half. You are a fairly large sculpture. You expand about 11 feet both ways, quite impressive I must say.
You have weathered a bit throughout the years. While at first you had the original metal tone that steel naturally takes, the weather did to you what weather has a tendency to do to metal. You have now taken on a darker, more copperish tone due to the rusting that has occurred. Don’t worry though, I think the rusting adds a little something to your deeper meaning.

The first thing I really noticed about you was your bottom portion. Your visual hierarchy is definitely reversed if you think about it, because the first thing everyone looks at is your bottom half. You have a lot of things going on down there! There is quite a bit of repetition of shapes throughout your lower portion. There is only one shape that you only have one of, and that is your most organic element. There are plenty of rectangular, circular, and wavy shapes that are repeated two or three times throughout your “body.” The organic shape, that vaguely reminds me of a pool of water, is the only one of its kind throughout you. This truly intrigued me, therefore I came over to find out more about you and figure out why this was.

One day when I was spending some quality time with you, some lady who was taking children around on tours referred to you as a “circle of life.” This description was something I found particularly insightful and, as I pondered it, completely true. Mike’s intention was to demonstrate associations with the universe and imposing harmony on chaos through you, and I believe he accomplished this with great ease. You do symbolize a “circle of life” in my eyes. The way you are all smooth and almost perfect along your top portion and then go to complete and utter chaos towards your bottom half is very symbolic to me about how life is fore most people. Even when things are going smooth and the way we want to in life, there is still something that gets thrown in that changes all the plans and throws a dent into life. I find that very inspiring about you. You make me ponder about your true inner meaning.

I thoroughly enjoyed your company over the last couple weeks. I feel like we got to know each other very well. You raised many questions within me about what exactly Mike was trying to accomplish when he created you. Although I know I don’t have you figured out to the fullest, I do believe I have part of your deeper meaning figured out. You challenged me and I appreciate it greatly. Thank you for the challenge. I’ll treasure the time we spent together for quite some time.

Your friend,
Jamie