By Frank Ross
Richard Bonk's Magic Mirror Mandala sculpture is on display beside Silver Lake in Silverwood Park, in the northwest suburbs of Minneapolis, MN.
The challenging aspect of a mirror is the image reflected by them. Mirrors cause us to contemplate the reflection we are confronted with each time we approach one of these remarkable surfaces. Depending upon your personal reaction, this refracted representation may be pleasing or displeasing, but it will always cause one to stop and evaluate the vision beheld before us.
Just as a mirror reflects the aging process of those who stand before it, close examination of a mirror also reveals clues to its own stage in the aging life cycle. For glass mirrors you’ll begin to see the effects of the rear coating as it begins to slowly deteriorate and separate, and woe unto those who drop and break one if you believe there is merit to the storied seven years of bad luck that will follow. Acrylic mirrors eliminate the fragility of glass mirrors but their lifespan is severely shortened by the ravages of exposure to direct sun, or the hand of vandals.
Such was the case for a work of art being displayed in Silverwood Park, located in a northwest suburb of Minneapolis, Minnesota. This park is located along the shores of Silver Lake, with the primary focus on arts and the environment. In this tranquil setting, only minutes from bustling freeway traffic, visitors are provided the opportunity to relax in tranquil beauty. With such a setting, artists come to be inspired and display their work as well.
Throughout the park a limited number of works are on display, and one piece, Magic Mirror Mandala, is intended to cause visitors to stop and consider the elements of nature around them and the harmony that exists between man and the world we pass through. The artist Richard Bonk, of Minneapolis says he has spent his life considering “nature, the creatures, processes, forms, patterns and textures.”
In his comments about the work he states, “I spent countless hours looking for critters, setting up habitats for them, growing plants, and attempting to capture their essence in art explorations. I have experimented with drawing, painting, printing, sculpture and photography. Most recently I have utilized the computer to capture elements from nature through sound, photography, and other digital data sources, then transform that information from its ‘parent’ into an abstracted aesthetic portrait –often a mandala.”
The mandala is an ancient Sanskrit word that means both center and circle. While the concept of life’s circle and cycles has been used cross culturally over the decades, those who grew up in the 60s you may recall the song by Peter, Paul and Mary titled The Great Mandala. The lyrics to this period protest song challenged people to “take their place on The Great Mandala as it moves through your brief moment of time.”
In this work, Magic Mirror Mandalas, Bonk’s intent was to engage our human perception, in collaboration between outer and inner nature by creating four micro elemental worlds with mirrors. Once installed in the park two issues became readily apparent; the first by a whiff of smoke.
Many artists take advantage of the beauty and tranquility of Silverwood Park to create their own art.
Within the park there are nine designated art circles that have been designated for larger sculptures in addition to other areas where sculptures and other works of art are on display for shorter periods of time, but this particular piece was donated and is on permanent display in a prominent location.
“What’s interesting about this piece of artwork is you see different levels of circular imagery in the mirrors and each quadrant of the circle is planted with plants and the mirrors are oriented north, south, east and west which gives different amounts of light to the different gardens, demonstrating how the various levels of light can cause plants to grow faster or slower depending on their exposure. It’s a little bit of a philosophical mandala mirror kind of thing but it’s also a straight up lesson in gardening that illustrates how plants grow. Although I did learn one lesson that the mirrors get so hot in the late afternoon that it actually set the grass on fire, so now it has some rocks around it so we don’t have a fire danger in the park.”
The next challenge proved to be more devastating to the artwork itself. Moffatt explained that Bork had wanted to use a more durable material such as stainless steel with a mirrored finish but the grant that he acquired to create the work wasn’t significant enough to do it properly, so he settled for using mirrored acrylic and the constant exposure to sun had deteriorated the mirrors to the point that vandals evidently felt they were a good surface to be violated.
Because Silverwood Park is a governmental entity working on a limited budget that depends heavily on donations, Moffatt was required to obtain multiple bids before replacing the damaged mirrors. Evaluation of the bids proved QuickShipMetals.com had the best price, but according to Moffatt, the total experience of doing business with QSM was beneficial beyond just getting a great price.
“I sent a CAD drawing so they could have the proper dimensions, and they custom cut the stainless steel and shipped it right out. I talked with a number of companies in the bid process and besides having the best bid on price, the people at Quick Ship Metals that I ended up working with made it a very easy and pleasant process for me. And, it took less than a week to receive the order,” he said.
The park encompasses 120 acres, which includes 40 acres of lake bottom. An estimated 200,000 visitors each year pass through the park, so if you’re in the Minneapolis area and want to experience a beautiful park appointed with various works of art that complement the environment, check out Silverwood Park.
Considering your own artwork with an eye toward mirror finish stainless steel? Please allow QuickShipMetals.com to work up a price for you. At QSM, the price is always right, custom cuts are never a problem and the service is as dependable as stainless steel!
