The Catchers in the Rye

The Catchers in the Rye

The Story Behind the Sculpture

Few things loom as large in the human psyche as the concept of death.

We’ve been grappling with our mortality since our brains gave us the ability to do so, and we can see the fruits of our labors in the tapestry of human imagination — from tales of Valhalla to books about vampires.

The Catchers in the Rye is my addition to that tapestry.

When my sister unexpectedly passed away in 2016, I butted up against the incomprehensibility of mortality and the powerlessness I felt in preventing her passing.

In the face of that powerlessness, I found myself doing what humans have done for centuries — imagining beings that would have some way to fight against the implacable decree of Death.

I imagined The Catchers in the Rye.

Named after one of my sister’s favorite books, The Catchers in the Rye presents a kind of being called a Catcher — my version of the protective “catcher in the rye” from J.D. Salinger’s classic novel.

In my imaginings, these once-human, spirit-like beings travel through time and space to find the souls of people who are between life and death.

Catchers find these souls being guided to the afterlife, fight the angels or whatever beings are guiding it, and return that soul to its body — thus returning that person to life.

They are part anti-hero pushing against Fate and the “natural order”, and part memorial to the compassion and help my sister gave to people in her life.

Ultimately, The Catchers in the Rye is about how we deal with death.

It speaks to the pain of grief, the yearning for control in the face of powerlessness, and the fierceness with which we would fight to save the people we love.

$1500 — Please contact for purchase.