R.J.'s Last Piece

So, here it is,
my father's last, unfinished piece,
tiled
"Lady and the Tiger"


He designed it on his computer,
and Danny Leonard did most of the carving.

(one of the last alterations he made was
to have Danny cut off the tiger's head
and replace it with one slightly smaller)








We might as well walk all the way around it,
because
I think that's what he was most proud of:
360 degrees of design.






(which he continuously told
anyone who would listen
was greatly facilitated by using a computer)






I don't really understand his fascination
over the last decade
with women mating with large animals.




Though I realize it's a somewhat Classical theme
(Ovid's Metamorphoses)







But Ovid is something you read, then put away.

Why would anyone,
other than himself,
want to include these images in their life
on a daily basis?





What possible life could these pieces have
outside of an art museum ?

But if they ever do make it into a museum,
it will have to be one in the distant future.







More, perhaps, they are a monument
to himself,
and his own
magnificent isolation














What a long way
he's come from here:








Perhaps that contrast,
between pieces made 50 years apart,
tells the story
of the American experiment
in the last half of the 20th C.