"Comma" was among the sculptures in the first Art in Roanoke (AIR) temporary exhibition from October 2008 to April 2010. Made by Lee Badger, the spiral disk turns on a cylindrical base, evoking celestial, nautical, and industrial images. On the application cover page for the exhibition, Badger said that viewers can find aquatic or nautical allusions and see the spiral disk as a rolling wave or a rotating snail. While the spheres on the spiral tips can suggest heavenly bodies in the swirling universe. Comma also evokes nostalgia for an industrial past. Its spiral disk is rusted steek and its cylindrical stucco base resembles an old industrial stanchion or a wharf mooring.

About the artist:
Lee Badger began his career as an artist-blacksmith in Denver and the Colorado Rockies, coming to the Mid-Atlantic region in the late ‘80s. He taught and worked as an artist-in-residence at Glen Echo National Park in D.C. In 1998, he built the Anvil Works studio and metal workshop in Hedgesville, WV, where he specializes in furniture making, sculpting, and fulfilling commissions for architects, designers, and homeowners alike. Check out his website at anvilworks.net

About AIR:
Since 2002, the City of Roanoke has designated 1 % of funds for certain capital projects to purchase or display art in the city. The program is overseen by the 19-member Council-appointed Roanoke Arts Commission. Art for Everyone, the city’s first public art plan, was adopted by the City Council in 2006.

AIR is a project of the City of Roanoke’s Percent for Art Program, established to provide public art in city neighborhoods and public places to reflect the community’s vibrancy and heritage.

Sourced from:
Information was obtained from documents by the Arts Council of the Roanoke Valley.