The Anemoi Frieze On view and open to the public at the Rocky Mountain Lions Eye Center at CU Anschutz Medical Campus I AM THE WINDS

To free the pale horse

The Anemoi Frieze was conceived as a project to accomplish three goals, the first of which was to express gratitude for the excellent work being done at the Sue Anschutz-Rogers Eye Center at UCHealth. From both a personal level and from a social level the Dusty Roads Project members saw the work being done and the excellence of that work and the vision of the staff to provide vision care to an almost universal client base. Vision care which is sight saving, life changing and life saving for their patients and by extension through research into treatments for heretofore untreatable and or uncurable vision diseases and disorders. Research into innovative treatments cures for macular degeneration; diseases of the cornea; vision impairment of children; restoration of sight to blinded individuals through innovative procedures who have had loss of vision; in some cases; for years; cures for ocular cancers such as choroidal melanoma, just to name a few. Second, to find a vehicle to present the idea that no one is in this world alone; no one enters into treatment for any ailment without the full cooperation of everyone. From the perspective of a patient, the treatment of an eye disorder is always about them, the prospect of losing one’s sight is uniquely personal with respect to how an individual perceives the world in which they live. The Eye Center understands the importance of the patient as a full partner in their own treatment. Third, The Dusty Roads Project had set their goals to achieve a work which could take a classical theme, put it into a modern setting, make it relevant in a modern sense, make it meaningful to those who would pass by and perhaps make them think of how close we are, in a human sense, to the links which make up what makes us us, what makes humanity so indebted to its growth from times so distant we cannot draw up memories except cultural memories of which we have nothing more than subconscious awareness. The question always comes to which way the wind blows, The Anemoi. The concept was to show that, while humanity confronts the absurd notion of their existence, our job was, is and always will be, “How do we remain relevant in an absurd world in which we are always confronted with the prospect of the fragility of our individual and our collective existence?” Especially, when we are confronted with the, much discussed, possibility of immortality, which may be a prison of unfathomable dimension. A man on the steppes of Asia, four thousand years ago, riding a horse had four eyes and two brains seeing and guiding, all reflected for us in the mirror of the collected language of what it has meant to be human. I believe we are still riding that bay mare who carried us forward, she seeing the path, we seeing the way. © The Dusty Roads Project, 2017

Don’t look for what is there, look for what is not. Like the sound of a note blown on a horn in the wilderness,one man’s prayer is everyone’s hope.

But come now, change thy theme, and sing of the building of the horse of wood, which Epeius made with Athena’s help, the horse which once Odysseus led up into the citadel as a thing of guile, when he had filled it with the men who sacked Ilios. If thou dost indeed tell me this tale aright, I will declare to all mankind that the god has of a ready heart granted thee the gift of divine song.” So he spoke, and the minstrel, moved by the god, began, and let his song be heard

Homer, The Odyssey, Book 8

So, we have presented this white horse made of wood leading others also made of wood and the winds have been made to sing the song to further their ongoing mission; the defeat of blindness.

I am the wind, I am an idea I am a tree, I am a horse I am a tree, I am an idea I am you, I am the wind I am the winds

I AM THE WINDS GALLERY