Etoile VIII, a maquette from 1983 for a larger version, is made of many fluttering, circling, and individually rotating parts that offer an endless array of potential movements. In a 1984 discussion of how he approached motion in this sculpture, Rickey explained: "My intention is that these periods of oscillation be slightly different from one another, and that they be long enough so that the observer cannot easily anticipate reversal of direction."

from Kephart, Passages of Light and Time: George Rickey's Life in Motion (Notre Dame, 2009)