Evon Zerbetz

Think up is an overhead hanging installation composed of 18 spheres hanging from three main steel rods extending from a neuron shaped wall bracket. Two additional steel rods support mobile or balanced elements. The spheres are studded with Evon’s linocut imagery, shaped, mounted, and bent, to wrap around the sphere. The imagery, which is mounted at different heights and overlaps on each sphere, is printed by hand from Evon’s hand carved blocks.
 

Artist Statement:
I set out to create a piece that represents thoughts and different manners of thinking. The origination of the piece—the steel wall bracket—is shaped like a neuron. Steel rods branch out to support spheres, which I think of as thought bubbles. Each sphere or thought bubble represents a different moment in our mind.

 

A few of the ideas behind the imagery include:

 

Chaotic thoughts—overlapping worms, frog with tornado breath, beetles
Organized thoughts—multiple fish swimming clockwise around a 24” sphere
Thoughts that keep you up at night—bat and stars

Troubleshooting—nuts and bolts thinking

Busy thoughts (bees at work)

Calm thoughts (empty orbs)

 

The globe reminds us that our thoughts are part of the larger world and have the power to affect others. We express some thoughts through writing—the tornado coming from a giant pencil. The semaphores spell out l - o - v - e, because everything ultimately revolves around how much can we love each other. Some thoughts are aimless, some are straight arrows; thoughts give us direction. 

 

And the soccer ball? Beyond being another orb, sometimes...we just need to have fun! I chose the theme and created this piece specifically for Valley Pathways School where students and staff are invested in making new thought patterns and choices.