The Centerpiece Mural
The Centerpiece Mural is where Cleveland east meets west, orienting the city to the lot division, the outer and the inner become balanced at the center.
The Centerpiece Mural is painted in the middle of the peninsula. A profile of the Cleveland skyline appears oriented East to West, with the sun sphere tracking the passage of daily time. Under this central feature of contemporary Cleveland Centre, the four seasonal colors are layered on a background forming the passage of day, where the archival Map convergence is depicted. Fading into night the moon and stars reflect on the Lake Erie waters, we see the silhouette of man in the elements; he breathes air, standing supported by Earth, illuminated by fire, the great flame of the human spirit. A new day brings us back to life, in the night we return to the source of renewal, the fuel of development. The universe evolves emmenating eternal cause translated through direct experience. Like a screen, in the center we experience the street convergence as a field linked to nature activating an inner posture.
We are all the same deeply connected to the whole, shifting ordinary to extraordinary perception surrounded by the totality of this place in time.
Cleveland Centre became a real destination in the pre-electric America landscape for immigrants seeking a better life in the new world, attracting a workforce to develop the vast resources of the Western Reserve frontier. Greeted by the radial-directional feature on streets named for the nationalities of migrating people; German, British, French, Russia, China and walked on streets named for the seasons, Summer, Fall, Winter, Spring. Cleveland Centre mapped a terrain with its compass placement set. Gathered at the central hub the sun symbol full of meaning and inner significance provides focus regulating the cycles of organic life in Cleveland.
Pulling the thread of the past forward and tying it to the future.
Today the driving force of daily-life is directed by an Information-Age where the individual depends on virtual realities competing with organic nature. Entertained to distraction we are lost in our minds, overwhelmed by conflicting sources of information, requiring the necessity to stop, balance and regain a sense of self-composure.
The Centerpiece Mural: Before –
Light is the most rapid means through which one part of the universe can relay an impression, through space, to another. Light thus considered moves us into deep time, a measure of which is the speed of light. Another measure of time derives from inconstancy of light… in the cycles yielding days and nights; spring, summer, autumn, winter- the seasons; years. The diurnal nature of light animates organic life on Earth. By this account, light motivates change and process, while light speed, as a constant, is unchanging and eternal, although paradoxically in motion. Light’s dual nature- constant but shifting- impinges on us, and we live the contradiction of being in one place at two times: both times in the same place: one world, two modes of apprehension, timely and timeless, (one face turned toward the universal and another face turned towards the individual.)
The Centerpiece Mural: After –
This is a story of metamorphosis. In it humans play a part in the transformational process required for the maintenance of the cosmos. The universe that is portrayed is not simply created from above but is elevated from below as well. Human participation is required as a fundamental principle in co-creation. The en-framing structure of the story… the earth’s things and the sky’s things are cultivated through mutuality and reciprocal exchange… Light and energy are not static but transforming and transformational.” ~ Neil Rusch
Now you can learn more about the other two murals in this project Click here
