Don Quixote and the Windmill
Color Palettes
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This series explores movement. These sculptures made of paper, wire, and wood are powered by the wind. When placed before a light breeze, the pinwheels spin and power the sculptures’ cyclical movements. The bird will soar. The horseman will charge forward, lance at the ready. Each sculpture evokes the theme of movement.
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Pinwheel is the simplest in this series. A light breeze spins a three-pronged pinwheel, which vibrates a wire. The following sculptures are variations on this mechanism.
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In Ocean Voyage, the pinwheel rocks a sailing boat. Wind movement translates into wave movement.
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Liberty symbolizes the search for freedom. The pinwheel connects to a wire that flaps the dove’s white wings.
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Similar to Liberty, the pinwheel in Don Quixote’s Windmill powers the horse’s charging legs. Ironically, Don Quixote attacks the windmill that powers him.
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In Cityscape, two pinwheels power rows of zigzagging traffic. In this “snapshot” of urban life, movement is choreographed along mechanical lines. The city silhouette in background is made from paper. This white sculpture is illuminated from beneath with a light.
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This sculpture called Time represents the wheel of life. A hand-operated crank rotates a wheel and powers the moving legs of a walking skeleton. On the wheel, silhouettes of infant, child, worker, senior, cripple, and coffin spin round, symbolizing the repeating stages of life for each new generation. While the skeleton depicts death, the wheel depicts continuity. In contrast to the sculpture’s theme of death the human hand, instead of wind like the other sculptures, moves the sculpture and completes the metaphor.
