Tylere Moxon
Seminar 2 – Artist Statement
Rory O’Dea
7-26-16
From the start of the class we visited the MET after browsing throughout the whole museum I entered the Greek Roman gallery of mainly sculptures, crafted jewelry and pottery this art is highly preserved and very old. The marble sarcophagus of Dionysus immediately caught my attention from the artistic skill and precision needed to create this divine piece of art left me puzzled in amazement. Every detail was only carved out of one giant piece of marble which blows my mind, not only was the craft mastered thousands of years ago but most of the sculptors today are not at this level of mastery creating around 220 A.D. At first glance this looks like a bathing or washing tub however I eventually learned it was a sarcophagus missing its original lid. Dionysus was the god of wine divine intoxication and revelry in this piece he is depicted on a panther pouring a glass of wine, surrounding him are different versions of Dionysus repressing the four seasons in encyclical order from left to right. I feel like art that is older and more primitive for example using a chisel and hammer and creating something like the sarcophagus of Dionysus had more love applied into it, giving it a magic feeling. I feel like you can really feel the love that was dedicated into the piece, 220 A.D. there wasn’t any distractions. All the artist had to do was focus on his craft, and this piece was designed for the praise of a God. Today we are so distracted and have our minds filled with too much nonsense to really focus on one thing in particular for a few hours. This presumably was at least crafted for a minimum of 6 months. What I can do to apply this form of focus to my work and projects would be to try meditating and disconnecting from the world for about an hour or so before I start any process. Possibly this may ignite a sense of solitude and I could tap into my inner sculptor.
