To Dennis Swanson, art is more than pictures on a wall. Art is an object crafted out of the creativity of one’s mind. Art is the heart of the author being spilled onto the page through words.

Swanson’s installation, “A Ship of Ice,” currently on display at the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship Gallery in the Round, 1015 North Hyland Ave., displays his belief of what art is.

Swanson uses more than 15 separate pieces to give a geological perspective of time and space as it relates to the Midwest.

“It’s about what happened to the earth in the Ice Age,” says Jean Dow, chair of the art committee for the fellowship. “Dennis Swanson’s work is very sensitive — it is imaginary. It’s pretty literal.”

Some of Swanson’s inspiration come from prairie potholes, the effect left on the ground when glaciers melted at the end of the Ice Age.

“It was really so amazing to me,” Swanson says. “[I] live out in the country north of Ames. There’s a prairie within walking distance that has prairie potholes.”

The multimedia art uses a variety of materials to create the installation’s geological feel.

“It’s called multimedia because it’s granite, concrete, Plexiglas, neon and [other materials],” Dow says.

Swanson says ideas for the title of the installation came from a unity temple built by Frank Lloyd Wright.

He says he was glad to be able to display the resulting work of art in another unitarian church.

Swanson uses black-and-white images on Plexiglas to portray his imaginings of the Ice Age along with quotes and writings, and in some pieces combines layers of the Plexiglas and the neon signs to create one large cohesive piece.

In other areas, Swanson uses pieces of granite to reflect the time before the earth was frozen and even incorporates a piece of footwear to give visualization to the modern era of civilization.

Swanson uses these types of materials with the words to give the viewer a linear timeline of the geological history of the Midwest.

Some parts of the display are from a storefront project for the Des Moines Public Art Commission that was on display during summer 2003. The pieces were rearranged for the current installation.

“It was in a window theater thing, and this is a totally different presentation of it,” Swanson says.

He quotes author John McPhee several times in his work, an author Dow says many people interested in science seem to recognize.

“I rely on text — my own and other things that really work well for me,” Swanson says.

He uses McPhee’s words to convey ideas about human time in the middle of his installation.

Swanson still works with Des Moines art galleries and is represented by the Bauhaus Gallery in Des Moines. He also has a piece on display in Cedar Falls’ Hearst Center for the Arts in an exhibit that revolves around geological art in relation to Iowa.

Dow says the fellowship often displays different local artists and she is enthusiastic about the anticipated response to Swanson’s work.

“The visual world is a way to get to the mystery, the sensitive side of life,” Dow says.

“We don’t [display] all happy pictures. We try to [display] life.”