BLUE LIPS

I admire my friend the artist Wim van Willegen. His sculptures of fragile leaves seem to float in space and sex you up in a casual way. Here you have a series of three lip-like leaf sculptures. 'Blue Lips'? The leaves could be very well derived from the genus Nymphaea, Lotus or Waterlily.
One of the three sculptures (wood, carved, and paint brushed to perfection) is slightly higher and provides the extra counterpoint in the composition.

WOOD LORE

The potent healing powers of a Gingko leaf in rust speckled steel - by Wim van Willegen

The fall of a leaf is a whisper to the living
I harbor this silent but ongoing admiration for my friend the artist Wim van Willegen. His steel sculptures incorporate the cut-out silhouettes of fragile leaves captured as negatives of nature with such potent positive energy. I blogged earlier on this small but significant collection of sculptures and I do so again. His last name suggests that he is of 'the willow-family', but his work just as readily sports leaves and branches and trunks taken from the broader family of deciduous trees. Always with such a delicate attention to detail, yet with a trained eye for what makes sculpture stand out.

An elegant popular leaf like a knife standing in solid steel - by Wim van Willegen

SPEAKING IN TONGUES

'Then they saw what looked like fiery tongues moving in all directions, and a tongue came and settled on each person there'.

Pentecost (Ancient Greek: πεντηκοστή [ἡμέρα], pentekostē [hēmera], 'the fiftieth day') is one of the prominent feasts in the Christian liturgical year, celebrated on the 49th day (7 weeks) after Easter Sunday - or the 50th day inclusively, hence its name. Pentecost falls on the tenth day after Ascension Thursday. [source: Wikipedia]

My friend the artist and sculptor Wim van Willegen made this object. Three rather heavy pieces of steel were laser cut to reveal the shapes of three different leaves. To me the silhouettes of those leaves resemble a single licking flame in a way. And although the empty leaf forms are light as air, the raw material needed to define all three weighs heavily on the person carrying such a fiery tongue. And so it is with the responsability of Pentecost. Address all nations from coast to coast, but speak with prudence. Enjoy your celebration and all the linguistic skills you have gained on Whitsunday.