The Large Fish is the second-to-last sculpture created by Weston Neil Andersen. At the time, Weston was very involved in the esoteric writings of Carlos Castenaeda. The super-size of the Carp and Weston’s ebony glaze with its glossy surface that shimmers in the light gives the fish a powerful mystical presence.

When I was living in New York, I was reading esoteric thought and the quantum philosophers. When I returned to Maine, I discovered that Dad had been reading many of the same books as I, although Dad did not read fiction. (unless you count the Bible, which he listened to on tape). If he had read fiction, he would have been reading Philip K Dick. In his novel Valis, Philip K Dick was having extradimensional experiences in which ancient Rome was superimposed on California in the 1970s. In the introduction to Valis, Dick confesses that it is a true story but since no one would believe it, he wrote it as fiction. In Valis, the fish is an ancient symbol of Christianity.

Years after creating this Fish Sculpture, Weston fell and suffered a brain injury. When I went to see him at the hospital, he was muttering on about systems management and fishermen. That is when I first became consciously aware of my father’s great talent for systems management, which made everything else in Andersen Design possible. At the same time, I immediately associated the fishermen with ancient Christianity as written about by Philip K Dick.

There were only a few of these large fish cast. Each one finished differently but we have the mold and it would be an exquisite piece for other studios to produce, each one with their own unique interpretation- This would require greater community support than I have been able to find in Maine but I will persist on pursuing the manifestation of my vision for a cottage industry network as the future formation of Andersen Design’s creative production. 

Large Fish, ebony, 18" by 9" by 9"

Large Fish sculpted by Weston Neil Andersen and decorated by Susan Mackenzie Andersen