Gothic Portal

“Gothic Portal”brings an architectural element that is usually 60 feet above us and places it right at eye level. From a distance it appears to be made from a dark stone that you would see in new England or Europe. Coming closer it looks more like cast iron. Up close you realize that it is created out of rusted tin. 
It was made entirely by hand using repoussé and chasing techniques, a simple handbrake and thousands of hammer strokes. There is a wood frame underneath each layer of metal. The rusted tin was from a collapsed barn built around 1917 that I salvaged. Taking a material that has been abandoned and considered worthless, that the wind bends and blows away, to use that material to make a sculpture that appears so solid, weighty, and beautiful amazes me.