" When I received a block of tulip poplar wood from the grounds of Thomas Jefferson's Monticello house, I began thinking about Thomas Jefferson and the home he created at Monticello. From this tree believed to have been planted by Jefferson himself, and that he must have watched as it grew, I wanted to make something that would pay homage to him and to Monticello.  I imagined how Monticello was at its beginnings and how the wood used to build it was hand hewn and rough sawn. Also, I thought about Jefferson's decision to add a dome to his house, and what it might have symbolized to him. I wanted the interior of the bowl made from his tree to give the viewer the same feeling of expansiveness and freedom that you might experience looking up into the dome.  In using my robotic chainsaw lathe-turning technique, I pay homage to Jefferson the inventor and, through the regular sawn patterns that give an illusion of space and structure, to Jefferson the architect. The black zone lines and pink, blue, and green colors in the wood evoke early maps, like those Thomas Jefferson collected. These graphic elements are displayed around the top interior of the bowl in commemoration of the map collection that he displayed on the walls of the Entrance Hall at Monticello.  This bowl refers back to the Ascending Bowl series I began in 1980. The lift of the form and the vertical lines on the top of the exterior symbolize the ascension of the human spirit.  It has been a moving experience to work with this wood that has a direct link to Thomas Jefferson's life at his home in Monticello. Monticello Bowl was made in honor of this patriot and philosopher."

                                                                                                               Mark Lindquist