Plymouth Magazine-Summer24-DIGITAL - Flipbook - Page 6
A Legacy to be Passed On
Naxos Figure
By Diana Jane Jacob Sickles
By Sheena Thomas
Parents have a way of shaping one’s life.
This piece, “Naxos Figure” is
the result of looking at this
pair of stones and seeing a
figure in them immediately.
The stones and design have
been waiting for years for me
to get them made up, and it
gave me great pleasure to do
something fun. Prehistoric
figures have always been
fascinating to me and
Cycladic figures particularly.
The way this piece fits into
other work I do is that I
let the stones dictate the
direction. This can be worn
both as a pin and as a pendant.
Two incidents from my childhood that I hope will be passed on
to future generations.
It was dark. Someone knocked on our door. We lived on a small
farm in central Ohio. It was during World War II. I was small
but what my father did that night is still a vivid memory. The
stranger had run out of gas on Route 68 that ran in front of our
farm. Gas was rationed in those days because of the war effort.
I went with my dad as he went to his car, took a hose, put one
end in his gas tank and the other in his mouth. With his breath
he pulled gas out of his vehicle and when it started to flow
transferred the hose from his mouth to a small gas can. That
night he shared what little he had with a stranger so they could
be on their way.
The other childhood memory is about my mother. Some
disheveled man knocked on our kitchen door. Mom went to
the door. The man said he was hungry and wondered if my
mother had any food he might have. My mother fixed him a
plate of food and he sat on our back steps and ate it.
Phil and I don’t have any grandchildren to pass these stories on
to so I’m passing them on to you. I hope they will stay in your
mind as they have in mine, and that you will remember them
when someone asks for help.
Jesus said, when you fed the hungry, you fed me. When you
clothed someone who was naked, you clothed me. When you
visited a person in prison, you visited me.
Stories from childhood worth remembering.
My dad: Royal Way Jacobs
Naxos Figure
It shows my age, but the work of Henry Moore, Jean Arp, and
other abstract sculptors of the mid-20th century have been
strong inspiration along with organic flower shapes and rock
formations. The pieces I raise by hammering metal from flat
sheet almost explode from the inside as I think about something
Moore said about his sculptures pushing from the inside out.
Similarly, I have raised pieces that open out like blossoms but
can also remind one of volcanic splitting open.
As a Pisces I see my work showing two paths: one calm and
contemplative, organic, but filled with inner energy and the
other, harder edged and fabricated with triangles, squares, and
trapezoids, devoid of meaning, but satisfying structure to my eye.
My mother: Helen Elizabeth Oswald Guckert Jacobs.
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About the Author
About the Author
Diana and her husband, Phil, have been
members at Plymouth for 15 years. Diana
received her MA from Luther Seminary
and her BA in Social Work from Grand
View College (now University.) Diana
began a 27 year ministry in the church
after her children were in school. During
that time she was consecrated as a Diaconal
Minister at First Lutheran Church in
Conroy and later was ordained at Faith
Lutheran Church in Clive.
Sheena Thomas is an active member of
Plymouth Church. She has an MFA in
Jewelry Design and Silversmithing from
Indiana University. Sheena also has a
space at Mainframe Studios in Des Moines.
