The image on the front cover of this month’s issue is of “Gate,” artwork created by Deacon Stone in 2006 and featured in the Drinko Library art exhibition at Marshall University. The exhibit was designed to explore perspectives on mental health in the library. For more information, please see the commentary featured on page 3.
The artist describes his work: “‘Gate’ is from a series of gates created from assemblages, comprised of objects found or forged. The works are an exploration of boundaries both self-imposed and perceived, and contemplations of how humans—as masters of categorization and organization—attempt to understand the world by designations; creating boundaries, limits, and arenas.
“As a son of the hills, raised in a Pentecostal tradition of Appalachian Mysticism, challenged by the expansion of boundaries that comes with a good liberal arts education, I had—and have still—so many perceived boundaries to erase; closed gates through which to pass, others to do away with altogether.
“The critical lesson in this journey has been that while we take comfort in our categorizations, or cocoon into the safety of in-group favoritism, we must be ever wary of out-group hostility which is an inevitable result. As physical objects, these gates are attempts at relegating our divisiveness and instinctive categorization to the history books … a recollection of how we used to think, feel, and behave.”