Vibrant, funny, elegant, profound. Overall a deeply heartening and enlivening display of talent for a summer afternoon in Attleboro — or for anytime, anywhere. That’s “Patterns,” the Attleboro Arts Museum’s annual national juried exhibition whose call for art sought work in all mediums, sizes and concepts that related to, or included, a pattern: “Consider zebra stripes, the family tartan, flight patterns, nautilus shell curves, quilts, breathing patterns, a strand of pearls, dress patterns, kaleidoscopes, waffle irons, wallpaper …”

And did the artists ever respond!

I think of the alacrity with which Patrick leapt from his attendance at the front desk to assist me with sculptor Tim Dawes’ kinetic sculpture, “Amore-2016.” Patrick, with a practiced nudge, set in motion two wheels jutting from the gallery wall. Don’t ask me about the physics or engineering behind it — but the metaphysics should be familiar to anyone who’s ever grappled with the real thing.

As the baroquely curved spokes in the paired wheels set up elaborate overlapping patterns in their now-forward, then-backward motions, they lift up a wooden weight from the gallery floor to where it hangs, suspended, at different heights and then, slowly, incrementally settles on the floor again, bringing itself and the two wheels that hoisted “Amore-2016” to a standstill.

It’s as direct and intriguing an invocation of love’s now weighty, then weightless, always balky inner motions as has, in my opinion, ever been sculpted.

To read more, pick up a copy of our latest issue! Click here to find a pick-up location near you or Subscribe Here.