I don’t remember who I overheard referring to our new sculpture as Hot Rod Angel, but I had to chuckle.  My original idea to explore bold metallic colors came from watching American Chopper and seeing the painters apply multiple layers of yellow and green to a new motorcycle tank.  It was bitchin’, and I couldn’t stop thinking about doing something like that on a sculpture.  When the idea for Rise landed on my sketchpad, I knew I found a place to try that rich color combination. 

There was a slight problem.  Dave and I have chosen not to use solvent based paints and have made a commitment to the powder coat process.  But try as I might, I couldn’t find any yellow-greens I liked in powder.

As the design for Rise started to crystallize, I got to thinking about red instead of yellow-green.  A deep, rich, translucent red.  Red like passion.  Red like the flow of blood.  A red that would enhance the meaning of Rise –  about striving to reach our human potential during our limited time on earth.  You can’t do that without quite a bit of fire and passion!  My hope was that red might help convey that, although Rise is angelic in her presence, she is very human in nature.

The choice has been well-received, with “Lollipop Red” wowing nearly everyone who sees it.   The color changes continuously throughout the day, and at the right time and angle looks as smooth & slick as enamel.  This has only fueled my desire to continue exploring rich translucent colors, and seeing just what we can do with some creative, high quality powder coat applications.  Thank you to the great folks at Masic, our powder coat supplier in Portland who has been very supportive of our work and our ideas‎.

Now onto my continued search for that perfect yellow-green…..