Douglas Holmes

When the hematology transfusion unit was on the fifth floor, it was not a comforting or pleasant place to be. The chairs in the waiting room put us in a single line along the windows with our backs against the spectacular view. When the plans for the new fourth floor were announced, it was exciting to learn that the waiting area would be open and the seating would be aligned to allow us to see the magnificent panorama just outside this room.  My intention for this sculpture is to encourage people to find interest in the piece, to sense its landscape references and follow those forms out past the window as the layers in the sculpture fade away.

As a patient in both spaces, I have spent a fair amount of time here, waiting – and watching others waiting. I have hope that this sculpture will encourage people to look outward, both with our eyes and our interest, and away from ourselves. It is difficult being up here in this waiting room because it reminds us of what we have undergone and the possibilities of more treatment ahead. The experience of looking out toward the Marin Headlands, the Golden Gate, the bay and ocean can be truly transporting. It can shift our focus, even if briefly, toward the big and away from the personal. This is what I am hoping for. I do not want the sculpture to call attention to itself as ART. I would be happiest if people did not remember the sculpture for itself but rather how it gave them some solace and inspiration and release as they contemplated it.

Douglas Holmes
August 2015