SONG FOR LUKE
Beware of artist’s explanations and interpretations of their own art.  Often they are clueless.  More often they are unaware of  important aspects of their artworks,  Geogia O’Keefe adamantly refused to see erotic aspects of her flower paintings.. Picasso declared cubism was a dead end, a mistake of no consequence. 
I would be arrogant to except myself from this behavior.
Regardless of that caveat, I will remark on the two artworks up for auction in Philadelphia this month.
The oldest one, Song for Luke, was conceived in 1975. It began as a challenge to use working electronic circuits as visual elements in a small sculpture.   The circuits were designed and laid out by my earliest collaborator , Richard Dudchek.  I had them printed by a local printed circuit manufacturer. 
64 LED grid PC pattern.
  I learned to solder  and wired the circuits.
Binary electronics is about the flow of electricity, off or on.  Manipulation of these states thru logic paths is the action of binary  circuits.  I was struggling with creating behaviors in the flow of on/off  states and assembling these physical  components.  One night, I dreamed of a fertility goddess in swirling diaphanous veils,  dancing on the surface of a sea.  Her dance was observed by Luke, one of Christ’s disciples.   I knew St. Luke is the patron saint of artists because he was reputed to have painted a portrait of the Virgin Mary.  He is also the patron saint of physicians because it is believed he was one himself.   Further research revealed that there was a pre-greek goddess whose dancing on the sea  results in the creation of the entire universe.
My wife, Janet, had recently undergone a successful surgery to remove a life threatening cancer.  I felt my dream was somehow connected. 

French Canadian madonna
Venus of Willendorf, c. 28,000–25,000 B.C.
Introducing glistening reflective acrylic panels for the base and supports reminded me of French Canadian religious items and crucifixes  in the collection of the Detroit Institute of Arts.  As I explored the arrangement of physical and behavioral elements of this artwork, the layout suggest the form of prehistoric fertility goddesses such as ancient Euro-Asian sculptures of women with exaggerated sexual attributes whose faces are replaced with geometric patterns.
  Suddenly it all came together.
The green circuit board took the shape of a fertility goddess with exaggerated breasts and out-sized hips.  The circuitry combined ambient light with darkness, similar to one of the first deeds of the Christian-Judaic god in his creation of the universe.  In the circuitry, one dimensional linear on/off sequences are blossom into a two dimensional square, a small “universe” of relationships.  The mirrored plexiglas forms a kind of halo.  The blood red pattern of the circuit arteries silk-screened on the backside of the sculpture suggest life.
"Song fot Luke" taught me a lesson in art marketing.

http://www.jpallas.com/SFL/artmart.html
The fabrication of this work does not involve the “artist’s touch”. It is like a print, a woodcut, an etching except the 1000th iteration is as good as the first. It can be produced by a workshop without the artist.  It can be an edition.  In art, such a sculpture is called a “multiple.”  The original idea of an serial artwork was promoted, if not invented, by the German master, Albrecht Durer.  His idea was to produce etchings cheap enough that could be afforded by a much larger audience.  Given the ability to mass produce works of art, the contemporary art cabal, has perverted this idea by artificially limiting production runs to create an artificial scarcity and thus maximize profit.  They regard art objects primarily as financial instruments.
Riffing on these concepts, I applied negative feedback, a cybernetic technique, to use the “market” to regulate the edition size.  Upon each sale, the price is raised 10%. My idea was the eventually the price will choke off the demand.  However Allan Stone refused to exhibit Song for Luke although he bought one for himself.  I asked why? 
He said. " Someone considering to buy one your larger works like Bird Perch for $9000 looks at Song for Luke at 600 and thinks  Bird Perch isn't fifteen times better than Song for Luke. He  thinks somethings fishy.  You have to raise the price.  It interferes with other sales."
 I said, " I can't raise the price.  It's part of the concept" 
"OK but I cant show it."
The piece up for auction was Allan's.  I don't show it anymore either.