Nothing
happens unless first a dream.”
- Carl Sandburg, 1878-1967, American
poet and author
Imagination is the engine of human progress. Dreams are not
the feeble yearnings of foolish young men and women. They
are the nothing less than the food of human advancement. They
are nothing more than the joy that each life holds.
Dreams we all carry in our innermost places are like seeds
planted deeply within us, often below the level of our own
awareness, until they are noticed at some inconsequential
time and, if we so choose, they begin to unfold, to be expressed.
This process of
becoming often requires great courage,
because despite its myths and brave talk, our society on the
whole does not reward original thinking and creative action.
Have you noticed this?
The Dreaming highlights
some few local residents who followed where their vision led,
and in the process, blazed new trails for us all. Each of
these individuals is studied today by students and celebrated
by their descendents. They include Francis Scott Key, Lester
Bowie, John Thomas Schley, Bill Moran, Johann Amelung, Patsy
Cline, Jacob Englebrecht, John LaFarge, and Claire McCardell.
They are heroes of the imagination and vision.
We are unable to
see the development that is possible and waiting for us beyond
the horizon. As Shakespeare said, "We know what we are
but not what we may yet become."
The most prominent
element in the work is the word "Say" in Francis
Scott Key's own handwriting from his draft of the poem that
became our national anthem. Saying is the most elemental form
of expression. Expression and growth are what the arts are
all about. Expression is the pathway to growth, to becoming.
We are always becoming, but what are we becoming? That
is and always was the question.
In The Dreaming, "Say can you see?" refers to vision,
both physical kind and the other kind of vision, the ability
to reimagine the future. Francis Scott Key coined the phrase,
"land of the free, home of the brave," at
the bombardment of Ft.McHenry, where a small group of defenders,
including come Frederick residents, protected the young country
of America from a British attack.
On that same day,
a group of Frederick residents were on trial in Frederick
for fighting for their own freedom. Some died in prison. Few
at that time could yet see that America would and must become
a nation defending liberty for all. That vision required another
half century, a million Civil War casualties, another century,
and a national civil rights movement, and still we are not
there. Yet in 1814, a young musician and tailor in
Frederick named Jacob Englebrecht, harshly condemned slavery
from an early age and he dreamed of its ending. He would one
day become mayor of Frederick. He was among the first to learn
Key's words, within weeks of their writing. Key's words drilled
the vision deeper into the public mind of America as a land
of the free.
The arts are one of the very few things that can expand your
capacity for imagination and vision, and that is one reason
why they are so important. Our vision determines our future.
Will we focus on the bombs falling or on the flag that is
still flying? Can you see?
The element carved most deeply into the glass is the word
"Liberty," in the handwriting of Jacob Englebrecht.
To some, liberty means the freedom to accumulate property.
To others it freedom in human vision, expression and creative
capacity. Thomas Jefferson opened the way for this distinction
in his Declaration of Independence as "the pursuit of
happiness," changing John Locke's earlier formulation
of "life, liberty and the pursuit of property."
Jefferson wanted America to be a place not just of justice
but of of human fulfillment. Jefferson stayed in Frederick
in 1776, on exactly the site where The Dreaming rises today,
on his journey to Philadelphia to write those words.
So The Dreaming is, primarily, a challenge to the viewer.
Its artist has never been so challenged as when conceiving,
proposing, developing and creating this monumental artwork.
Now it challenges you.
And, if you are
feeling adventurous, take a little tumble . . .
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The
Vision • The Process •
A Place of Dreams • Imagination
• The Glass Veil
The Weaving Layer • Carved
Stone • Dream Pool •
Artistic Team |
