Lake Forest Park resident Ken Zeran’s art career is based in New York but his work can be seen at St. Mark’s Catholic Church in Shoreline in the form of a 64-square-foot Venetian glass mosaic.
The piece, entitled “The Affirmation of Life,” was dedicated July 15 as a memorial gift to St. Mark’s by the Knights of Columbus “in memory of the sanctity of all Human Life,” according to a plaque placed in front of the piece.
After being asked by former St. Mark’s chaplain Rev. Otto Koltzenburg to create an original piece, Zeran researched religious pieces throughout the world.
“There are many pieces depicting the blessed Mother Mary,” Zeran said. “And they are all beautiful but often looking at them you didn’t know what they were about and I wanted to convey something clearly to the public.”
He continued to research 22 studies about working with glass and began working on his own labor-intensive project.
The context of the entire piece, according to Zeran, is a baby bathed in gold, and contained in a perfect, circular halo. The surrounding universe is portrayed by a deep blue background while light blue in an upper corner symbolizes an energy flow, he said.
Zeran said, it is “all about creation” and is a “portrait of the human race … that translates to everyone.”
“Some people may find the piece to be striking but it’s really such a simple image,” he said after noting that Leonardo Da Vinci was the first artist to portray a human baby before its birth. “If you think about it, (the image) is no different than it would have been 2,000 years ago.”
Thousands of points on the glass in the mosaic create shadows for light refraction and due to the fractured points, the piece will change depending on the time of day and the season, Zeran said at the dedication. The temperature of a light spectrum and angle of the sun will change the chroma values in the piece, causing different parts and colors of the overall piece to become more dominate and easily seen.
“Every 20 minutes or so the personality of the piece changes,” Zeran said. “That’s the beauty of glass. It renders that kind of quality.”
The mosaic sits in a structure of 80,000 pounds of concrete and is framed on either side by statues of Mother Mary and Saint Joseph that were created by the Orlandi Statuary in Chicago, Ill. The piece is entirely hand-crafted by Zeran and can be found in the church’s Holy Family Meditation Garden.
“The garden provides a place for those who have lost and mourn a child,” Archbishop of Seattle Alex Brunett said at the dedication.
Rev. W.R. Harris of St. Mark’s, Rev. Koltzenburg, the Knights of Columbus and parish members attended the ceremony.
Zeran dedicated the mosaic in honor of his mother, Margaret Mary, and family. His 88-year-old father and his brother attended the dedication.
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