The Nine foot tall Metal and light “Healing Eye Caduceus” will be shown for the Sera Phi  ” 2012 Portal Activation Harmonic Convergence” Grand opening Party  at 1117 Howard @7th. San Francisco on Dec 20th. 8pm – 2am  $20.

www.maricelaalvarez.com

Healing eye will be showing July 9th -12th At the Fire arts festival in Oakland Ca. Visit www.the crucible.org for tickets and info.

Gas welding is a great way to acheive fantastic results when sculpting recycled steel.

Gas welding was the first welding medium i started sculpting with.

I sometimes use gas welding closely with arc welding.

These are some faces or masks in metal that are lamps.

some are copper welded with tig and or brazed copper. Brass or silver solder.

others are steel and copper.

Most are hinged to access the light.

They are very dreamlike when they are lighting a dark space and casting shadows on the ceiling and walls.

People sometimes find the process of making metal sculpture just as interesting if not more interesting than the finished work of art. Here are some examples of a process i use to create a metal mask from a drawing or photo.

This is a clay sculpture from a photo that i formed into a face with 16 gauge sheet metal.

Here is a close-up of the metal face in progress.

I usually start with a photo or drawing. This one i printed off the internet.

Then it gets sculpted in clay, as seen in the photo above. After i am satisfied with an accurate clay 3D.model, I use whats called a “direct metal” tecknique to sculpt the form.

Gas, arc welding and gas cutting were used. Soon the piece is finished.

Creating metal horse sculpture is very rewarding . My smallest equine sculpture was about 6′ long. and the largest to date was A half scale size or about 3′ long.

This sculpture was commissioned.  A rubber mold was take from it for casting in bronze or other metals.

Making metal masks is a specialty of mine. i’v been creating them for almost 10 years. The smallest is wearable and the largest is over 9′ tall. 3 people can dance in its chin. I have created multi-discipline performance events with the larger that show at festivals. Keep posted for videos of past shows to appear.

The one shown here was my first large one. It has steps up to a door in the back that opens into a gazebo in the head. The eyelids were made from a wok and are hinged to be adjusted.

Some are open structure like Ideas Fascade. This one is one of the few that i had painted.

Woven reflections is my favorite and most well executed to date. It is of woven stainless steel.

This sculpture was conceptually two years in the making.

decided to create an armature so that i could layer the metal on it and create duplicates.

The finished piece was to serve as a mega mask theatre. Dancers could dance on a platform in the chin. Video docmentary on these performances is to come.

Here is A new one i’m working on for 2009 summer shows.

“Melting Flag” is my first piece of political art. I will first say that as messed up as America is that i love this country and what it is intended to represent from our founding forefathers who designed our constitution. God bless America.

This melting American flag sculpture stands 7′ tall.  It is a hollow-form sculpting tecknique constructed from aluminum sheet metal. It has a vinal G-klee print of old glory flying in the breeze adhered to its top surface on both sides. The paint job is of an automotive quality professionally done. The black base is bolted to the sculpture.

This is the second object i have illusioned to melt. The first was an  aluminum sculpture of a melting stratacaster guitar.

Why melt the American flag? Why not and  hello! If you dont think america is melting, get a reality check. When was the last time you tried on your constitutional rights. Do they still fit? The people at homeland security think you should hand them over to the salvation army.

Is america melting a good thing or a bad thing? maybe its neither. Maybe its just a reality. Maybe the biggest insight out of this work of contemporary art is to wake us up out of a long cultural slumber and to ask when will the lies stop and the truth be told . Or you can go back to sleep and let the government steer us off the cliff of never-never land. No joke.

I like not to impose to much of my own ideas about how i want my art to be read. I want the art to ressonate deeply within each and every viewer in the privacy of thier own being.

I know my intentions for creating a work of art like this and I want the viewer to recieve thier own feelings and discover the truth for themselves. True art is so much more powerfull than the whole avelanch of words and intelectual ideas that controll  the world today.

Melting Flag is Modern Political Pop Art , a wake up call and an object of beauty.