“Cycle of Life” - Contemporary Tactile Art by Horst W. Mueller
In “Cycle of Life,” contemporary tactile artist Horst W. Mueller brings together color, texture, movement, and celestial symbolism in a work that can be experienced both visually and through touch.
In Cycle of Life, two prominent circular forms create a visual and tactile journey through life, transformation, and the relationship between the earthly and spiritual worlds.
At the center of the composition is a large red circular form, divided and crossed by raised, twisting shapes. It can be read as the earthly world, the wheel of life, or the human condition—a place of movement, struggle, division and transformation. Red evokes vitality, blood, passion, struggle, and the physical force of life. Raised golden forms twist and travel across its surface, resembling intertwined bodies, roots, pathways, or fragments in motion. Rather than presenting life as orderly or static, the composition suggests continual movement—lives crossing, separating, changing, and becoming connected again. They may be read as lives, experiences, pathways, or forces meeting and separating as they move through the cycle.
At the top of the composition, a Golden Sun and Silver Half-Moon are intertwined, their forms appearing to flow—or almost spill—into one another. Rather than existing as two separate celestial bodies, they meet within a single circle, creating an image of opposites becoming interconnected.
The Sun and Moon naturally evoke the passage of time: day into night, light into darkness, awakening into rest, ending into beginning. Their continuous relationship becomes an appropriate symbol for the cycle of life itself. Gold has traditionally been associated with the Sun and silver with the Moon, making Mueller’s choice of metallic colors particularly resonant.
But here, neither celestial body completely overtakes the other. The Golden Sun seems to enter the Silver Moon while the Moon simultaneously curves into the Sun. Their boundaries become fluid. This can be interpreted as duality held in balance—two opposing forces that are nevertheless parts of one whole.
The surrounding greens and deep blue-greens introduce another realm: the natural world. They suggest earth, vegetation, water, growth, and renewal. The composition therefore seems to move between several interconnected levels—nature, human life, and the cosmos.
The circle itself becomes one of the strongest symbols in the artwork. Without a visible beginning or end, it can suggest continuity, eternity, completion, recurrence, and renewal. Mueller’s documented work incorporates archetypal forms including circles and celestial bodies, while his predominant use of gold has been interpreted as pointing toward a relationship between events in the material world and the stars.
And because this is Mueller’s tactile art, the symbolism is communicated not only through color. The raised Sun and Moon can be discovered by the fingertips; the circular boundaries can be followed by touch; the irregular golden forms can be traced as they cross the red center; and the deeply textured border gives the hands a physical boundary for the composition. Mueller’s philosophy of “Even Hands Can See” is rooted precisely in this experience—creating artwork in which texture and form invite touch and make the work accessible to blind and visually impaired people as well as sighted viewers.
Symbolism
Golden Sun — light, energy, warmth, life, consciousness and the passage of day.
Silver Half-Moon — night, reflection, change, cycles and the passage of time.
Sun and Moon flowing into one another — duality, balance, continuity and the inseparability of opposing forces.
Red circle — earthly life, vitality, passion, struggle and human experience.
Intertwining golden forms — movement, connection, transformation and the paths we travel through life.
Green and blue-green — nature, earth, water, growth and renewal.
Circular forms — eternity, recurrence, wholeness and the never-ending cycle of existence.
Ultimately, “Cycle of Life” can be experienced as a meditation on continuous transformation. Day becomes night and night becomes day. Life moves through growth, struggle, change, and renewal. The earthly and celestial worlds are different, yet connected.
The Golden Sun and Silver Half-Moon perhaps express that idea most beautifully: two distinct forces flowing into one another, each changing where the other begins, yet together forming a single, unbroken circle.
Cycle of Life, 10×15.5″, contemporary tactile art by Horst W. Mueller is available at The 1895 Church of StuArt
“Cycle of Life” – Contemporary Tactile Art by Horst W. Mueller
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