Petras Mazūras was inspired to carve Black Woman from basalt after reading Richard Bach’s novella Jonathan Livingston Seagull.

We see the strong, upright figure of a woman. Her head is hidden between two clasped hands, which pull her garment away from her body. The woman’s face emerges in the fold of fabric. She longs to shed the weight of daily cares, duties, and fatigue – to free herself from all that binds and prevents her from being her true self.

The sound of the sea.

“Jonathan Livingston Seagull rises with two radiant gulls and vanishes into a sky black as night.

Keep working on love – these were the last words the Teacher left us.”