Ratio Utah, 2011, the sculpture that Herbert Steiner commissioned from Andrew Rogers, in Green River, Utah. Behind it are the Book Cliffs.
  • Courtesy the artist
  • Ratio Utah, 2011, the sculpture that Herbert Steiner commissioned from Andrew Rogers, in Green River, Utah. Behind it are the Book Cliffs.
There is a 90-year-old man living in our city who taught school here for 30 years, never much liked it, then retired, started riding the rails, and really started living. He's the guy responsible for a new, 44-foot sculpture based on the Golden Ratio—and tipped with 23-karat gold—standing tall over a highway in a tiny town in Utah, Green River. His dream was simply to leave a legacy.

He also made national news this spring when, out of nowhere, he bid on the future of the granddaddy of earth artworks, Robert Smithson's Spiral Jetty.

Sometimes Spiral Jetty disappears underwater. Smithson might have liked the idea of a blind man owning the land.
  • Sometimes Spiral Jetty disappears underwater. Smithson might have liked the idea of a blind man owning the land.
The man is Herbert Steiner, and Herbert Steiner has been blind for the last 8 years. He lives alone in a tiny apartment in the University District, on a modest budget, and with a team of helpers he insists be painters and poets. He's a total inspiration, and you should see his sweet portrait taken by Kelly O.

There's more info about Andrew Rogers's Ratio Utah sculpture; Rogers calls Steiner's humble commission "one of the most unusual" he's ever received in 21 years as an artist. Meanwhile, Rogers is a phenom in his own right: His ongoing Rhythms of Life land art project is 47 large-scale stone structures on all 7 continents (or ephemeral "geoglyphs," as in Antartctica). Here's a clickable PDF from Rogers, with lots of pics of Ratio and Rhythms.

Rogers_PDF.pdf