I have thought for years that art should transcend politics. For me, metal sculpture has been about creating a window through which one can view the ideal, or know a moment when time stops. The concept that art should be about ideas immediately relevant to an historical context seems somehow static. And yet, faced daily with the financial news, an unprecedented presidential election, the prospects of global warming and the inevitable transition of my children into young adults, I am thinking that my sculpture needs to be exactly that. I think there is a hunger in the world for something of substance. I know so many people who believe in doing the right thing, who want a greater good, who love with all their hearts, and who stop to watch a sunset. But so much of that kind of thing has been sentimentalized or politicized that we no longer cling to it as a necessity. I think we lack a movement that demands these aspirations from each other, from our leaders and our media, from our educational and governmental institutions on a daily basis. So how does one transform a quest for beauty into a political statement? How does one make the pursuit of the highest attributes of humanity a daily reality? Should I, as a metal sculptor, and should my colleagues in Santa Fe and artists globally start using our art to talk about where we want to go instead of merely commentating on where we are? Can you imagine what an impact we could have?