ALTAR OF APHRODITE

Aphrodite was the Greek goddess of love, beauty, and fertility. James Kelsey did not intend to create his Altar of Aphrodite sculpture; he had intended to create two separate sculptures. However, when he saw the two sculptural elements lying next to each other on his studio floor, he saw a greater beauty could come by allowing them to be together as one, than the two separate elements could have been individually.

Kelsey was seduced by the loveliness created when the two sculptures combined to make one. In a kismet found only in creativity, Kelsey allowed his imagination to take over and he thus created something entirely different than his intellectual self had expected. The Altar of Aphrodite title is metaphoric for Kelsey’s imagination marrying with his materials, and the two sculptural elements blending together to create a new work.