Gallery – Sculpture and Contemporary Spirituality

Commission

96″ x 96″ x 96″

Carmal-orange painted steel

Te Deum

TE DEUM
Not because of victories
I sing,
having none,
but for the common sunshine,
the breeze,
the largess of the spring.

Not for victory
but for the day’s work done
as well as I am able;
not for a seat upon the dais
but at the common table.

Charles Reznikoff

Homage to Trees

60" x 60" x 10 gauge

This sculpture began when I tried to fashion a tree made of wood. The piece became incredibly heavy. Though tenuously clamped to a secure post in my workshop, it was difficult to secure. Twice it fell on me. Once it hurt. For weeks my hands turned to other projects.

Slowly it dawned on me that it would be quicker and safer to cut the tree from a sheet of steel using a plasma cutter. It was. Hence the sculpture.

Trees have memories. Their rings catalogue in surprising detail a history of drought, disease, humidity, floods, DNA, fires, heat, cold, trauma and homes for all manner of creatures. Call this sculpture a homage to trees.

Winter’s Gift

Winter’s Gift

80” x 20” x 20”

Steel, plant, soil, paint

Most sculptures are inanimate. They are placed on pedestals, often in museums and in fine homes. This one is not inanimate. It is living. Something about it causes us to pause.

Why do we slow? Art awakens reflection, gets us thinking, stirs feeling. “Winter’s Gift” does that.

Martin Helldorfer

1936 —

Study–4

Study

36″h x 26″w x 24″d

Steel, paint

Contemporary sculpture constructed with 1/8″ steel welding rods

LGBTQ+

Pride

Steel, acrylic, paint

14″ x 13″ x 8″

Many within the. LGBTQ+ community use a six striped rainbow flag to illustrate their cherished values. I’ve taken that flag with its six colors (red, orange, yellow green, blue and indigo) to sculpt another possible symbol of that diverse and valued community.

Affection–2

Affection–2

6″ x 7″ x 12″

Steel, paint

This sculpture mingles two hearts, a musical note, and color to slow and attract the gaze of those who pass as well as to note the linkage of music and love.

Children of war

The Child Among Debris

17″ x 14″ x 7″

Steel, art board, paint

Today’s news documents in word and image the bombings in war torn countries. Neighborhoods are leveled and thousands of families displaced. Tonight’s news was about Gaza. It is said that the number of children murdered exceeds the number of combatants.

All week I found myself cutting and welding together dozens of small squares to form a web of sorts in the shape of a ball. Using a laser I cut out the image of a child with outstretched arms, one hand holding flowers, the other a bird. I placed that image within the rounded ball that I had made. Then crushed it. This sculpture, a child among debris, is result. I find it striking.

Summer work

Last summer my focus was largely on the fabrication of a large contemporary sculpture for a client. Attached are photographs that reflect the last stages of the work from powder coating to installation.