MICHAEL B RIEGEL

Statement

Mike Riegel

As a young Catholic altar boy, I was haunted by the concept of life after death and purgatory.  These rituals, beliefs, and images from the church are an overarching theme in every series of my work. My mother and grandparents were deeply religious Catholics with German roots.

I found myself with my drawing pad in my secret cave under the cloaked dining room table at my grandparent’s house. My great-grandfather was an accomplished fresco church painter in Hamburg, Germany, in the 19th century. My grandfather continued the tradition with stylistic calligraphy, image-making, and whirligigs. In graduate school in Carbondale, Illinois, I was fortunate enough to study with my idol and mentor, Brent Kington, a renowned artist/blacksmith. There, I was introduced to steel and blacksmithing to make objects.

I began my artistic journey by painting with oils and drawing with graphite.  At 17 years old, living in Charleston, Illinois, I attended Eastern Illinois University and discovered that working with my hands making small objects with silver and copper was exciting and rewarding,

At 29, my professional teaching career began, and I moved across the country from my family of origin to experience a whole new cultural awakening in California. I started making large-scale steel figurative sculptures. Although scale and materials have varied, the commitment to the human figure has been the one constant.

I use white chalk with a dowel rod and draw on a concrete floor to plan potential sculptures. I source influences by finding images from many different cultures and artists—African, New Guinean, Naive art, Giacometti, da Vinci, Michelangelo, and Goya. This is the profound art I have always loved.