John A. Bell
John A. Bell is an artist who reclaims salvaged metal to create sculptures. Using braised and welded steel and copper etched with acid to produce textural qualities, his first series of fourteen sculptures depicted the human head. Since then, John’s art has evolved and expanded to include more abstract themes. His most current work includes pieces created with steel from demolished buildings and industrial scrap materials. By allowing the metal to react to the environment as well as to chemical applications, John creates surface textures of deterioration which add mood and meaning to the sculptural shapes.
As a teenager, John purchased gas welding equipment to use in his hobby pursuits. He became an adept welder and applied his skills in the family horticultural business as well as in his career as an industrial arts teacher and as a plant engineer. He has degrees in ornamental horticulture from SUNY Farmingdale and the Ohio State University and has taken industrial arts classes at NYU. John has also studied at both the National Academy School and the School of Visual Arts in New York City.
Artist Statement
Steel is a beautiful material that can be twisted, bent and hammered into shape when heated red hot. It does not give up easily but requires work to make it into what you wish. When one learns how to defeat steel’s resistance and to form it as one pleases, the results are gratifying. Iron ore from the earth has become a material for art.
Once In the hands of man, steel is found everywhere in daily life. After it is put to use, steel reacts with its environment, and its surface can go from a lustrous gray to a deep rust brown, eventually acquiring a deeply pitted moon-like surface. The beauty of demolition or found steel is the endless variation in its color, shape, texture or origin. Surface textures of deterioration add mood and meaning to a sculpture. Newborn steel has no history, but used steel has provenance. There is vital warmth and genuineness in used steel. Its surface tells a story about where it has been over the years. Now a new story begins in the hands of a sculptor.
Steel sculptures using raw, untreated, reclaimed material may appear primitive. Lines are created from misshapen pieces of steel whose surface texture and color force the eye to follow each line from beginning to end. The emphasis is to be informal, creating a piece that is not polished nor has a look of perfection. The elements of construction are left to stand naturally, and the steel will speak however it chooses.
When taking a piece of rusted and multicolored steel I ask, where will you take me? Are you the beginning or the end? What must I do to make you a complete thought?
