The Stargazer

Statuette of a Woman: “The Stargazer,”

My favorite piece of art at the Cleveland Museum of Art is called “The Stargazer.” It is a small statue, only a few inches tall, and an incredibly simple work of art. But her journey, how she came to be, and how she survived until now are anything but.

I was in high school the first time I remember seeing “The Stargazer.” My art class used to come to the museum every week to learn about the art face-to-face. I was entranced by her immediately, her eyes barely perceptible but clearly looking up there, looking out there to the heavens and beyond. I asked myself, I asked her: what did she see? What was she looking for?

Now whenever I visit the museum I make a point to stop by and see her. I spend a few minutes catching up with her. This is just one chapter of her life, safeguarded in this small glass box, but I wonder where she’s been before. It says she comes from the Western Anatolia region of Turkey, but that was just her beginning. I think of all the places I have been since we last met, all the meetings I have had with strangers and friends. I think of her like I think of me: a dreamer, a wanderer. She inspires me to keep dreaming, to keep wandering. Even when I am tired of traveling, or feeling discouraged, just thinking of the little Stargazer reminds me to keep my dreams alive - I can’t keep going if I let them die. How many times did I face a roadblock, or a difficultly, and I had to dig down deep inside me to persevere? Just as she seems to beam from the museum lights above her, I had to look up to the sky and feel the divine light upon me, an ethereal tether to the heavens, to believe there was something out there to help keep me going.

When I think of the little Stargazer I remember that there was a girl thousands of miles and thousands of years away who was looking up at the night sky just like me, wondering what is out there just like me.

She reminds that if I don’t go out to try and find it for myself, I will always wonder what I was missing.

This little Stargazer, who now resides in the Cleveland Museum of Art, holds a place for me to go out and see the world. To follow my own star, but also to guide others to follow their own. We all have our own star out there who draws us forth in the world, who pulls us out from the depths of the mud, like that which still remains in the cracks of the little Stargazer, to shed our fears and chase our dreams.

This year, I hope you find your star, one of millions in our little, infinite universe. And I hope you follow her, and find what you are looking for.

happy new year,

love,

greer