Wandering through the beautiful galleries on Canyon Road in Santa Fe, NM some years ago I found myself in an enchanting sculpture garden at the Patricia Carlisle Gallery. It was one of those places where you felt that if you could just sit for a while all your troubles and ills would simply vanish into the serene beauty everywhere to be seen.

This was my first introduction to “Ascension Of Eve” and the beautiful bronze sculpture of David Pearson. To me his gift is his ability to capture both the beauty and the incredible strength of the feminine spirit.

The photo in no way does the piece justice – I can only say that if you visit Santa Fe you MUST allow at least 30 minutes to visit the Patricia Carlisle Gallery and bathe in the beauty of Pearson’s work.

Ascension Of Eve - David Pearson

From the  David Pearson website:

No matter how contained, cool and elegant the figure, a Pearson bronze projects a classical balance between vulnerability and dignity, between its own inner life and its connection with the human race.

One has seen this perfect tension before, usually in museums which house collections from antiquity. Pearson’s sculptures do not borrow stylistically from anyone, yet their intuitive essence corresponds on a peer level with Nefertiti, Gothic cathedrals, the Russian icons and their artistic heirs: Vermeer, Archipenko, Braque and Giacometti. Unlike the swarming, labored Hellenic and Victorian statuary and the excesses of post-Modernism, all of Pearson’s works have a common thread of reserve, grace, depth — qualities which have grown increasingly rare in recent times.