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'Sphere of Love' celebrates Pride Month

David Macvaugh, a woodworker and "survivor of corporate America," unveiled his "Sphere of Love" recently at his home in Flat Rock.

By Lee Stevens, Published: June 8, 2022

'FLAT ROCK — The Sphere of Love, created in honor of Pride Month by woodworker David Macvaugh, is a five foot circular sculpture made of wooden rings in sequential sizes painted in gradient colors of the rainbow flag.
The sculpture, recently unveiled to invited guests and neighbors, hangs from a frame bolted into the porch ceiling of Macvaugh’s home in Flat Rock. Stand at one angle next to it and you see the colors of the rings and the sphere as a whole; move to another angle and you see words hanging inside the sphere. The words are peace, community, acceptance, inclusivity, and safety. Words that Macvaugh gathered over months of conversations with 200 members of the LGBTQIA community about what matters most to them. Another angle to view the sculpture is to lie beneath it. From that angle, the rings look like ribs, and the words move gently in the breeze at the heart of the piece.

While he identifies as a regular “hetero” white male, his children cover the rainbow of alternative identifications, and making the Sphere of Love has helped Macvaugh accept the full joy of the diversity of his family. The rings, in addition to celebrating the rainbow flag, also represent the cycle of life (conception, birth, life lived and death) that we all experience. His purpose in making the sculpture was to recognize that while we are all similar in our passage through the same cycles of life, we are not similar in the challenges we face in living our most authentic lives. He hopes the piece will create conversation and awareness of the value of honoring the individuality of each person.

“I don’t have a flag,” he explains, “because as a privileged white male, acceptance has been free. I took that acceptance for granted so often that I became blind to it. We all are.”Macvaugh describes himself as a survivor of corporate America. In the process of achieving success in the ways that were expected of him, he became sick, depressed and spiritually bereft. When he stepped off the corporate hamster wheel, he shed his material goods, got involved in the Men’s Movement, discovered yoga and meditation, and returned to creative fulfillment through his life-long interest in woodworking.

His path of discovery and acceptance has felt like a journey back home to himself. It inspires his passion to raise awareness of the value of living out our lives as our most authentic selves and his desire to celebrate the rainbow of our full diversity as individuals.

“There are those among us — family members, friends, neighbors, and total strangers — who want nothing more than to feel like they are part of the whole,” he says. “We can all look inside, recognize our blindness, and stop taking for granted our inclusion and acceptance. Let’s recognize those who live each and every day fighting for what you and I get for free.”

The Sphere of Love helps us do just that. It helps us change the angle of how we look at others who cross our paths. Macvaugh hopes the sculpture will find a permanent home in a museum, a gallery, or other location where it can be seen and appreciated by the most people, and it can do its best work of changing minds and hearts.

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For more information, or to view the sculpture, contact Macvaugh at (828) 606-0844, or by email at bigfootdave2755@gmail.com. Lee Stevens, a freelance writer, lives in Hendersonville.

Click here to watch a YouTube video of the unveiling.