Lewis deSoto
Recumbant (Under Grass), 1999
Pigment on silk, wooden blocks
7 x 4 x 2 ft.

Recumbent (Under Grass) is a sculpture based on the remembrance of the artist’s father. The piece consists of two elements. A silk covering digitally printed with the image of the lawn that the his father so laboriously cared for. The image is printed in four panels. Each panel has the identical image reversed and turned so that the image becomes a four-part mandala. Under the silk coverlet is the form of a figure, based on his father’s dimensions, made of small blocks of wood gleaned from his father’s workshop. The pieces are glued together to create a mass-like shape resembling a body laid on its side.

The artist takes materials that his father used in life and creates an image of his father in death.