Weather Vane - Angel Gabriel c. 1938

Howard Weld made this Angel Gabriel weathervane - no date on it, but he was active for a long time. You know, when you look at a work like this, you imagine him wrestling with the metal, trying to get it to bend to his will. I love the economy of means. It's so simple, right? Just a few cuts, a few bends, and suddenly you have an angel blowing a horn. It must have been so satisfying for Weld to see it catch the wind and spin around, a little piece of heaven right there on earth. He’s saying something about belief and also about how we want to know where we are, and where we’re going. I wonder if he knew how many other artists were doing the same thing, trying to capture the world in their own way. It's all one big conversation, isn't it? We build on each other, inspire each other, and keep the whole thing moving forward.