The Divinator

     “The Divinator is one massive metaphor. It contains a number of symbols I’ve been using to show nobility and decadence. The Romans and Etruscans used birds to foretell the future. Like I use the crows. Crows are intellectual. They are a much-maligned bird, incredibly alert, upstarty and indifferent. I’ve used owls and other predatory birds, too. They’re like predatory man.

        My real subject is the redemption of humankind. If what you see (in The Divinator) looks awful it’s because I hope it will change. The Divinator is casting the future. He’s doing anything he can to find a way to work things out.

        I feel it’s a colossal blunder to try to say this in words. The sculpture has to say it in a sweepingly general way. It speaks in metaphors.”  

                                                                Leonard Baskin         

                            The Commercial Appeal