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Artist Statement: <br />While we are often taught that asking a question indicates ignorance, intelligence is in fact driven by <br />curiosity. Like many young people, I was curious about the world around me as a child but was <br />often afraid to ask questions. The local library was the one place where I felt free to bring all of my <br />inquiries about the complex world around me. Education is not just about going to school and <br />getting a degree; it’s about finding a safe environment where one can investigate, explore, and learn <br />at one’s own pace. A library provides that space. <br />The bronze sculpture I’ve designed for the San Leandro library continues my ongoing series of <br />works that transform punctuation —an intangible and sometimes invisible aspect of language — <br />into solid sculptural forms. Cast in bronze at 12-15 ft tall and mounted on the face of the building <br />below the exterior clock on the lower portion of the building, the question mark thus assumes a <br />paradoxical dimensionality and permanence. It serves as a beacon to the intellectually curious of all <br />ages, inviting them to fearlessly investigate every mystery they have ever wondered about –from <br />the profound to the quotidian, from the past to the future. The question mark suggests openness <br />and potential, the promise of limitless opportunities to change the narrative of that which is expected <br />to that which is possible. <br />“The paradox of education is precisely this -that as one begins to become conscious one begins to <br />examine the society in which he is being educated.” –James Baldwin <br />12