Gabriel

Gabriel came to life as a series of rough sketches. He was commissioned to fit a very tight alcove and the size restrictions forced me to curtail my usual sweeping curves and dramatic postures. He had to be stately, beautiful and tragic without outspread wings and dynamic movement. As is often the case, the size restrictions forced me to push the design and come up with something entirely unique for my body of work: a small sculpture. Gabriel stands 15 inches tall. When you consider that most of the monsters and angels are built life size, this piece represents a step in an entirely different direction for me.

From Sketch to Flame

Gabriel is a steel fabrication. Whereas some sculptors take a piece of material and reduce the superfluous parts until nothing but the finished piece is left, I start with nothing and add pieces until the piece is finished. Stone carvers reduce. Steel workers fabricate. Gabriel started life as a 4 x 12 sheet of 16 gauge steel. Using a cutting torch, I turned that flat sheet into hundreds of elongated triangles with rough hewn edges. Each triangle was then carefully bent inward from the corners to produce a crescent shape. Some crescents were bent multiple times to produce complex curves, many of which were used for the wings.