Peace Crane
FUN FACT: The Japanese space agency JAXA used the folding of one thousand cranes as one of the tests for candidates of its astronaut program.
Spirit of Peace by Caprice Glaser
Bronze (metal), Limestone The garden features The Spirit of Peace, a bronze sculpture by local artist Caprice Glaser, dedicated in 2006. The sculpture portrays the ancient craft of origami and illustrates the folding of a peace crane. The walking path around the sculpture has origami paper and information plaques on peace stones that depict the steps in making a peace crane enabling visitors to create their own. Words of peace in 23 languages are engraved on stones at the base. The sculpture represents the international tradition honoring Sadako Saski, a girl who developed cancer as a result of radiation released by the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima. Told of a Japanese legend that people who fold a thousand paper cranes will be granted a wish, she folded over one thousand cranes before her death at age 12." Sedako’s story has been told in a historical novel by Eleanor Coerr: Sadako and the 1000 Paper Cranes.
See
Spirit of Peace in winter
Glaser adds the final patina to her sculpture
Read Marking a Pandemic, One Crane at a Time about a mother and 12-year-old son who folded a crane for every day of the pandemic lockdown.
Say
Do you think that the essence of origami remains even though this artwork is bronze?
How do you think Glaser’s sculpture with all of the separate steps created in labor-intensive bronze is similar or different to the act of folding 1,000 paper cranes?
How do you think the effort of folding 1,000 paper cranes would feel?
Do
Write a message of peace on a paper and fold it into a crane.
Click here to learn how:Leave your paper crane for a stranger to find.
Not sure what to do with your crane? How about sending it to your mayor or president, and asking them to be always thinking about peace.
About Caprice Glaser
Born Jul 1987, she received her BFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago
Activities and societies: MN State Arts Board, NEMAA, MN Sculpture Society. Glaser designs and creates metal and wood sculptures, freestanding and suspended, relief wood, acrylic paintings, and oil on canvas. Her mixed media fine artworks are for sale and available by commission.
Follow Caprice Glaser on Instagram: capricekglaser
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