Making the angels
Archangels Gabriel, Michael and Ariel, Angelica and Eternal, with a time-lapse of an angel taking shape in John's studio.
Pl. 1 · Archangel Ariel.
On John's old site the angels stood together on the Sculptures page, each with a name: Archangel Gabriel, Archangel Michael, Archangel Ariel, Angelica, Eternal and the Double Contour Angel. Gabriel was also made at three-quarter size.
Most of them are built in slices. Thin horizontal bands of steel, stacked with a gap between each one, make up the body, so the light comes through the figure. The wings are fanned blades of steel, some dark and some polished bright. Many of the angels hold something: a spear or a staff, a small bird, flowers. Some kneel; some stand.
In The Artist and the Algorithm John writes that his commissions today are usually his large-scale angels, some of them as tall as 23 feet. He shows one, Meditation Angel, a 21-foot sculpture at a spiritual healing center. When the AI he is talking with admires it, John answers simply:
Lol well I just see stuff in my head.
The angels carry stories of their own. In his chapter on intuition he writes:
Some of these angels I build are placed at spiritual healing centers around the country. I’ve heard stories where people have premonitions about my art before they even arrive. One woman even dreamt about one of my angels before she had ever seen it. When she finally arrived on the property, she literally broke down in tears.
The book's gallery chapter adds detail on two of the angels from the old site. Angelica is life-size, with a spear in one hand and a small bird resting on the fingers of the other; she stands in Stockholm, Sweden, and in Southern Arizona. Eternal Angel is made of horizontal slices and holds a staff, and inside her chest is a heart that shows only from the right place, at the right angle, in the right light.
Two short films from the old site show the work up close. The first is a time-lapse of an angel taking shape in the studio. The second is Archangel Ariel.
On the old home page, John put it this way:
I find inspiration in nature, human emotion, and a deep sense that there's more to this world than what we see.
At the close of the book's chapter on his life as an artist, he puts it another way:
I have come to realize that in the end, I don’t believe my art is mine. I think I’m just the hands, the translator, the stubborn human who agreed to build what whispered its way through.
The old site's list of places to see his work included the Angel Park Sculpture Path at Brandi Fenton Memorial Park in Tucson.
The plates
