Artist sculpts the Gospels

ST. JACOB'S, ON—For more than two decades, the Gospels have been inspiring artist Tim Schmalz in the design of his bronze sculptures.

Although raised in an agnostic family, the St. Jacob's-based artist says a spiritual conversion at the age of 17 has strongly influenced his art career.

"My faith is a part of who I am," he says, "even when I am creating a sculpture. For me, I can either read the Gospel of St. John or I can sculpt it.

"I wake up each morning wrestling with the Gospel, wanting to give it a visual translation. I find myself asking questions like, how can I represent this? How can I visualize the stories of 2,000 years ago?"

Born in the small Ontario town of Elmira in 1969, Schmalz (www.timschmalz.com) began making nonrepresentational sculptures (art that doesn't realistically represent natural objects or people) at the age of 18.

However, it wasn't until he left the Ontario College of Art and Design to apprentice with professional sculptors in the Toronto area that his work became representational. And although he was and is still inspired by the artists of the Renaissance—including Italy's Michelangelo—Schmalz says it was only when he started working with Christian concepts that he felt a real connection with his work.

"I would throw my whole being at abstract art," he says, "but was left feeling empty. It seemed that the more shocking the piece, the better the art. But I hated the idea of devoting a life to something so empty.

"Once I started working with Christian ideas I felt connected with something larger than trendy art, something bigger than all of us… I also want to make people contemplate what they are seeing."

One such contemplative piece is Schmalz's sculpture Jesus Christ the Homeless, which he created after seeing a homeless man lying in a sleeping bag on a downtown street in Toronto.

"I remember thinking, 'That is Christ in that sleeping bag,'" he says.

The bronze sculpture is of a seven-foot long park bench with a man lying on it and shrouded in a blanket. Although his face isn't recognizable, his feet show the wounds from where he was nailed to the cross.

"Christian sculpture acts for many as a gateway into the Gospels and the viewer's own spirituality," he says. "After looking at an interesting piece of art the viewer is curious. The more powerful the representation of the art, the more powerful the questions become."

Schmalz also describes his Christian sculptures as being prayers frozen in time.

"When I create a three dimensional sculpture in bronze I am quite aware that it will last longer than myself. I realize I am between two things that are much more durable than myself: Christianity and bronze metal. It is between these that I have developed a subtle appreciation for what Saint Francis meant by [being an] 'instrument.'"

Before one of his sculptures is transformed from clay to bronze, Schmalz begins and finalizes the creative process of his concepts in his St. Jacob's studio, a place he describes as being his Canadian think-tank.

"My St. Jacob's studio is filled with incomplete three-foot sculptures and I am usually working on seven or eight pieces at any given time. I guess you can say it is easier to start than finish," he says laughing.

Once the concepts are ready, Schmalz flies to Beijing, China where he has a large studio, located near a bronze foundry. "In China, I have access to some of the world's best bronze smiths to cast the clay moulds into bronze—some pieces as large as 50 feet."

While Schmalz's work includes many religious sculptures on display in North America and Europe, over the years he has also completed several non-religious public monuments for memorials such as 9/11, the Kitchener Fire Department, and for veterans' groups on both sides of the border.

"If you have an epic subject you will have an epic piece," he says. "To look at the sacrifice of our service men and women and of our firefighters then you have an idea of the Christian value of giving of yourself for your brotherhood."

Schmalz is also working on a national hockey monument that he hopes, once complete, will find its home in a small Canadian hockey town. "I am creating this piece as a celebration of the hockey culture in Canada and not to glorify the National Hockey League or players like Wayne Gretzky."

The bronze sculpture will be one of the largest in Canada. Its base is made of sheets of sparkling white granite to resemble ice and the hockey players are the heroes of small towns across the country. "They are the ones who live for the game, the hockey moms, and the girls who play, but who will never have a chance to play for the Stanley Cup," he adds.

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