“Angel with Magic Hands” is painted on canvas, which I gessoed to double thick mat board and floated atop a masonite background, then framed under glass using a spacer to create a shadowbox effect. I made several paintings like this- they had an intimate appeal, a looking-glass window into my very big imagination. Also, I’ve always loved mixing media and experimenting with materials.
When I made “Angel with Magic Hands” ten years ago, I was freshly new to St. Louis, a young man with big ideas, hopes, and dreams. Now I sometimes wonder. I was selling these down at Archetypes, then a few doors down from Vintage Vinyl on The Loop, along with a variety of shrink-wrapped prints of my paintings and some other paintings, etcetera … had a good little run down there for awhile. It seems like a lifetime away, ten years. I scarcely remember my inspiration for this one, though I had made a couple paintings of “St. Michael”, and I’ve been known to use the bible for material. He could be some version of the Biblical Avenger of Heaven, readying to deal retribution. Every artist worth his salt must deal with God/Religion/Mortality sooner or later, if not in his work, in his life. While I am somewhat skeptical of people claiming unbending faith in their religion, I am equally suspicious of those who say a “higher power” is myth.
