Walking down railroad tracks on a hot Midwest summer day, the tracks would appear to come together at a vanishing point that kept moving farther away, as I approached. And a shimmering mirage of water would float above the tracks, never quite close enough to touch. On either side of the right of way, were awkward, ungainly, beautiful sunflowers, as common as the ubiquitous ragweeds, wild blackberries and goldenrods that surrounded them.

Many of the sunflowers were taller than myself. Some were standing at attention, while others were drooping in the hot summer sun. All of them turned their glorious heads to follow the path of the sun. Sunflowers are truly abstract sundials, both by their motion and by the shadows they produce. Tournesol Sauvage! Wild sunflowers, are kinetic art.

Later, while hiking through rows of megalithic stones in Carnac, I watched the lengthening shadows they cast as the sun was setting. This experience was repeated often, culminating in seeing the majesty of the obelisk, Cleopatra’s Needle, at high noon. It did not happen over night, but somehow I knew that I wanted to make a sculpture that combined the beauty of a blooming sunflower, and the awesomeness of a man made pyramidal shaped vertical column.

In the late ‘90s I made models of narrow pyramids from cardboard or wood. The ones I like best were four-sided pyramids that reversed at each apex. I added color and then reflective materials. Events moved quickly after these experimental maquettes. Soon I was fabricating polished metal structures.

A spiral can be endless, and leap outward to infinity. In reality, the spiral is a symbol that will end, when it is drawn around a sphere or a donut ring like torus, so that it joins up with itself by spiraling through its middle. This spiral swirling vortex is perpetually turning in on itself, has an interchangeable center and circumference, and has neither beginning nor end. In nature , a tornado, orthe Coriolis Effect of water circling down a drain, are good examples of dynamic cyclic action.

My steel spiral augers are of a finite length and fold back on themselves at the top; and come spiraling down on the other side of the auger. At the bottom, this procedure is reversed into the upward direction. The cycling action is continuous.

"Jubilee Stomp! " is a recent addition to the beautiful landscaped grounds of St Supery Winery in the Napa Valley. My 30 foot high powder-coated spiral auger greets visitors at the entrance to this grand award winning winery.