Javelyn 432
I recently took some time to visit art museums in Baltimore, and came home fully inspired by the sculptural prowess of the ancients. I was delighted to see many figurative sculptures in the same scale I have been working in, albeit completely different media. Javelyn’s pose is one of movement an of grace: having one foot touch the ground on the toe tip makes setting her balance more challenging. Fortunately I’ve had decades of practice getting my robot’s center of gravity centered on my precisely-leveled weld bench. I don’t use pedestals in my work because it turns little robots into little sculptures of robots. I want them to seem real.
Javelyn’s hands approach the limits of scale for my sturdy TIG welder
Her fingers are individual clips of ERS-80 TIG weld wire, each fused one-at-a-time to a teensy piece of plate steel. This process does not go smoothly without trail and error, and it took many attempts before coming up with a solution. As a sculptor, there’s always new horizons to pursue, even with a lifetime of experience.
Weld wire was used a few other places with Javelyn, but in silicon bronze. Her legs have an inlaid stripe down the fronts. Her dangling hoops – shaped with a hand tool and fused together – catch the light nicely whenever she moves her head.
But perhaps the most striking part this piece may be the rich red tube used for Javelyn’s torso – a u-lock security enhancer that is used to make forced access more difficult. It’s basically a thick plate of steel rolled into a tube with a big hole in the side. I added the ’emblem’ to cover the hole while adding a little interest to the piece. Is it a button? A gauge? An emblem? Whatever the case, the red is powder coat and not paint, which means it’s tough to take off. This worked well for me as I wanted to keep as much color as I could: the steel and the bronze and the boilerplates on her back work so well against that lush color!
Javelyn has a grace to her that seems fitting to her name and is a huge success for me as an artist. There’s a lot of small sculptural victories with her which only comes with dedicated practice and a relentless artistic pursuit for excellence. If she could talk I think she would be saying ‘ta-da’, which feels fitting, considering how she turned out as a work of art.
Completed Sunday 9 November 2025
12.25 x 9 x 3″
2 lbs, 4.6 oz.
$700.00
Available