Holmdel 9/11 Memorial: A Touchstone in the Heart of Town

Holmdel artist Kyle Galante, whose usual medium is paint, had done very little sculpture in her life.

But after September 11, 2001, she was moved by a deep desire to reach out to the families of the victims in compassion and healing.

“As an artist I wanted to help them," she said. "I wanted to help our community to mend.”

A deeply devout person, Galante prayed for direction and says she received the design for a sculpture in a vision.

“I saw it clear, simple and complete,” she said. “A image of upturned hands conveying the idea that 'we're all in God's hands.' That was the message.”

So she began to sketch.

Meanwhile, the Holmdel 9/11 Memorial Committee -- comprised of dedicated residents who'd lost loved ones and township officials -- began discussing a memorial to honor those residents who'd lost their lives on 9/11.  Galante, despite self-doubts, submitted her drawings.  The committee voted quickly to approve.

Sketches and renderings led to a small scale 3D model, called a maquette.

"Hands are very difficult to sculpt – even in painting, hands are hard,” she said.

As models, she scrutinized the hands of family and friends.

“My husband would say they were his hands, and a friend in the Hamptons will tell you they're his hands,” she said. “That's how it is with art, we see ourselves.”

Mostly, she says, she copied her own hands, knowing them best.

Her early drawings originally included two beams of light emanating from the upturned hands. But technical difficulties necessitated a last minute design change and they weren't included. Still, two round placeholders in the sculpture remain.

Galante spent three months sculpting the life-sized version in clay at the Johnson Atelier Technical Institute of Sculpture, a non-profit sculpture center and foundry in Hamilton, NJ, where it was cast in bronze.

Dedicated in 2004 the memorial stands 9 feet tall by 11 feet wide and is made from 90,000 pounds of black granite.

While the hands are the work of Galante, a visual cue for the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center, the rest of the memorial's details were designed by the Committee.  The sidewalk surrounding the sculpture depicts the Pentagon with the flight numbers of the four hijacked planes displayed on the granite base. A hand-etched image of the World Financial District by artist Philip Hagopian of Vermont is located on the front of the memorial.

Fire department, police department, emergency medical services, and Port Authority shields are inscribed next to the names of the victims. The words “freedom, faith, hope, love, family, unity” mark the granite surrounding the hands and were chosen by family members. Galante said letters written by family members to their loved ones are concealed inside the memorial.

Galante included her own letter, and carved scripture verses into each palm.

“Ten years ago, I thought the message was 'we're all in God's hands,' and I believe that that is still the message. However, now, ten years later, the message is more than that.”

She says she's come to see the hands as a call for – and a symbol of – unity.

“Unity among all people all across the globe. We need to reach out in understanding, forgiveness, and peace,” she said, “because in unity is where we have the peace.”

She acknowledges that her vision for unity might be hard for some people to accept even now.

“There's still a lot of mentality of not wanting to accept everyone, that mentality that believes in war, vengeance,” she said.

“But we're here for a really short amount of time and we're called to do the best we can and to treat each other compassionately, a selfless way of being,” she said. “I was not here in my thinking five years ago but I've evolved,” she said.

Galante says she carved tiny spirals that encircle each wrist. The swirls – like the shape of galaxies or the shell of a nautilus – are a symbol of continuous life to her.

“There's that sense of unity again, the sense that we're all connected,” she said.

“I'm not a writer. "These hands are my message of peace.”