“The Offering”

“In 2005, Gene created The Offering as a maquette for a long-planned monumental bear fountain. He represented the water that he planned to have pouring from the bear’s hands with a coil of bronze spilling out of his hands. The sgraffito drawings represent a stylized Tree of Life pattern that Gene had used in a sculpture he had done for Hewlett Packard in Oregon, when he was a teacher at Linn-Benton College…We also created a drawing of a mask with two hands encircling it. Life spirals complete the back of the bear. On the front, we drew amorphous dancing human shapes.”

 

– Rebecca Tobey – Excerpt from “Partners in Art”