English blues-rock band Ten Years After founded by Alvin Lee may have once been the only association anyone had with those three words, but September 11, 2011 begets a never before used connotation, and ten years after now engenders a dark, sinister and sad memory.

A photograph of a burning World Trade Center with Jill's hand wearing a white plastic peace ring and silver ring with an empty space where a stone should be

Tower, Peace and Freedom

English blues-rock band Ten Years After founded by Alvin Lee may have once been the only association anyone had with those three words, but September 11, 2011 begets a never before used connotation, and ten years after now engenders a dark, sinister and sad memory.

Towers with huge amounts of gray smoke filling the sky. Jill's hand wearing a white peace ring

Tower and Smoke

Few catalytic events cement a population together. At 11:59 on December 31st many of us celebrate. And on December 25th most people think only of good will toward men. But at 8:46 Eastern Standard Time ten years ago on September 11, 2001 we were bonded by shock, grief, and ultimately mourning.

Figure falling through space from the World Trade Center with Jill's hand in front of photo wearing white peace ring

Lost Love

Firefighters heard the sounds of steel, and glass breaking, erupting and twisting. And when Captain Jay Jonas looked up and saw a beam of sunlight where a ceiling had once anchored the souls of the occupants that came to work on that seemingly ordinary day, he knew conditions were grave. “Every fiber in my being was screaming at me to get out of this building…But that’s not what firemen do.”

Broken small pieces of glass on concrete

Broken Glass

Glass – Thomson Square

We may shine, we may shatter,

We may be picking up the pieces here on after,

We are fragile, we are human,

We are shaped by the light we let through us,

We break fast, cause we are glass.

Cause we are glass.

I’d Love to Change the World – Alvin Lee – Ten Years After

I’d love to change the world, but I don’t know what to do.

So I’ll leave it up to you.

Rest in peace our brothers, our sisters and our children.

Painting by Frank Crowley - acrylic on canvas - Wait

Wait

 

Wait – Acrylic on Canvas – Frank Crowley

Calder Crowley Leistner – the art exhibition

Artist’s Eye Fine Art Gallery – 954.554.3153 – Through October 10

The Freedom Ring – Silver ring worn on Jill’s middle finger. Designed by Slaughter. The empty space is intentional. One’s own flesh is visible. Instead of the placement of a stone, the ring was designed to inspire the wearer to value themselves as the jewel.