James Surls, The Splendora Years

Sweetgum, oak, pine 103 x 29 x 39.5 in 261.6 x 7 x 100.3 cm Private Collection, Dallas

"The image of a powerful force erupting from the house reappears in Tornado. Here the house is a church—a house of worship. A cyclone of wood chips is attached to the church roof. Surls points out that this tornado is not a harbinger of destruction. Instead of setting down and destroying the building, it seems to erupt from inside the calmly self contained church. Hence it becomes a metaphor for an internal energy or spirit which emanates from this most powerful of psychological symbols."

-Eleanor Heartney, from Splendora: A Love Story in the publication "James Surls: The Splendora Years, 1977-1997."


	Tornado 1977 Sweetgum, oak, pine 103 x 29 x 39.5 in 261.6 x 7 x 100.3 cm Private Collection, Dallas "The image of a powerful force erupting from the house reappears in Tornado. Here the house is a church—a house of worship. A cyclone of wood chips is attached to the church roof. Surls points out that this tornado is not a harbinger of destruction. Instead of setting down and destroying the building, it seems to erupt from inside the calmly self contained church. Hence it becomes a metaphor for an internal energy or spirit which emanates from this most powerful of psychological symbols." -Eleanor Heartney, from Splendora: A Love Story in the publication "James Surls: The Splendora Years, 1977-1997."