Today I had the opportunity to walk through the Richard MacDonald sculpture gallery. One my school teachers from high school told me about his work and current exhibit of sculptures based on the cirque du solei performers and dancers in general. I'm so glad that i finally went to see the exhibit, my family even has a small dancer playing a long horn in the family room but I have never seen the gallery of life sized work. Upon walking in a bronze sculpted man stands looking down on you, giving the feeling that you are really being watched. The figure was so powerful dominating that it gave me the chills. The dancers however are my favorite. He does such a good job of capturing the motion along the emotion that both the performance and audience feels. that breathtaking energy that  extends through the the performers limbs and into the viewers soul. I thought to myself, trying to apply what we learned in class, why use bronze? To me bronze is very human. Not too strong like stone or marble, but not too weak of a material either. It seems to fit the strength of a determined and powerful human being. The subject of humans really hit me. I began thinking that these replicas of the human body were amazing and absolutely gorgeous. They are so strong and so real. And then it came to me that they are models of us, of people. The human body can do amazing things, things that can  one can only attempt to create with material. 

I always loved the way an artist can take a hard substance, like bronze, and make it look so real and so full of movement and passion. MacDonald has actual dancers pose for each of his pieces. I love this because I feel somehow connected to this person. I feel their energy through the artwork. It's as if their dancing or performing, or simply standing right in front of me!