FIRE Paula Crevoshay “This world of music, whose borders even now I have scarcely entered, is a reality, is immortal.” —Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart I have always been inspired by Mozart who believed that he didn’t create music rather it came through him. When I start a project I hold a gemstone in my closed hand and listen intently for it to tell me what it wants to become and then I wait for an image of the finished jewel to appear in my mind. In the case of Phoenix Rising I meditated on the theme FIRE. Fire is the combination of energy and matter and it is transformative. It is destructive and creative at the same time. You can’t have one without the other. My years in Asia, immersed in the aesthetic, cultural, and spiritual traditions of India and Thailand, were foundational in the development of my design vocabulary as I transitioned from paint and canvas to the durable medium of metal and stone. For me, these two formative influences radiate in this work inspired by fire. 68 “ We are all of us, literally, stardust: composed of elements forged eons ago and scattered like magic seed across the vast universe. Phoenix Rising celebrates the hope and glory of the cosmic dance of which we, like the stars, are a small part.”