James Gabbert, Sculptor

The idea for this piece occurred while attending my college junior daughter's class at the University of Central America in El Salvador. The title of the class was "Liberation Theology". The professor engaged the visiting parents by teaming them with students in a theatrical exercise to express the difference between Old Testament and New Testament views of God. Liberation is a direct result of our team's theatrical expression of the latter. Within 15 minutes I had sketched out the concept on my PDA and it has remained much as I originally envisioned it. This piece is about "liberation", but liberation of any kind; be it physical, mental, spiritual, emotional... The water, if appropriate to add, represents whatever it is that liberates, be it words, education, spirit... Note that the water is flowing away from the first figure trapped in the rock and by the last figure the water is lifting the figure up.