Sister Moon
Click on the thumnails above to view closeup details.
Sister Moon is one of four feature commissioned pieces on the pediatric floors of the OSF St. Francis Medical Center in Peoria. Geared to appeal to a young population, the theme of each floor is based on a portion of St. Francis’s Canticle of the Creatures that addresses different aspects of the environment. I poured the night sky using acrylic inks, water, and gravity to mimic movement patterns that happen daily on a micro and macroscopic level, both in space and here on earth. Of the billions of galaxies out there, Sister moon smiles down at ours-a beautiful spiral galaxy called the Milky Way. NGC346, an emissions nebula, fires away in the upper right hand corner. I chose NGC346 because it’s a stellar nursery, or a birthplace of stars -fitting for a place where kids are born everyday! It is also an emissions nebula, and they are the most colorful of all, glowing like neon signs from the energy released by the stars within. Being 210,000 light-years away from Earth, most of us wont have the opportunity to view it-but most of us living in the northern hemisphere can identify Ursa Major, the Great Bear, or the Big Dipper, in the upper left and corner. A telescope on the right tries to take it all in-including the fireflies circling down closer to earth! I chose the font Herculaneum to render a portion of the canticle, because it is, for me, reminiscent of text I saw on the beautiful banners hanging on and above the altar at St. Michaels, my childhood church.  

108” x 42” x 4”

Acrylic, pigment and compound on wood

Cheryl Holz Studio

50 E. Galena Blvd, Aurora, IL 60505
(630) 898 2530