February 2008

Exhibition Updates

Final Tour Schedule for Redeeming Beauty:

March 7 -- May 12, 2008: Ave Maria University (Naples, FL)
Reed Armstrong will give a lecture, "Images of Christ through History," at 2:30 p.m. on Sunday, March 9 in Ave Maria University's Oratory (5251 Avila Ave, Ave Maria, FL 34142).
The exhibit opening will coincide with Ave Maria's annual Festival of the Arts.

May 23 -- July 25, 2008: National Shrine of Mary, Queen of the Universe (Orlando, FL)

August 9 -- October 24, 2008: University of Dayton (Dayton, OH)

November 16, 2008 -- January 9, 2009: Cathedral Arts Project, St Cecilia Cathedral (Omaha, NE)


Beginning March 10, the Foundation will be located at the following address:

The Foundation for Sacred Arts
1413 K Street NW, Suite 1000
Washington, DC 20005
www.thesacredarts.org

Autumn/ Winter 2007

Dedication Mass

After many years of hard work the sculptures of the Blessed Virgin Mary and St. Joseph were dedicated in a special Mass on November 17, 2007 at Our Lady of Mercy Catholic Church. Her work on this project was featured on the cover of Lutheran Forum magazine in their Winter 2007 issue.

Redeeming Beauty:Religious Works of Contemporary Artists

Two works have been accepted into a traveling exhibition sponsored by the Foundation for Sacred Arts. The show opened at The Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception on August 30, 2007. The exhibit was on display at Christendom College, Front Royal Virgina, from Oct 24th to December 9th. It will be going to Ave Maria College, Naples, Florida, starting on March 8th, 2008.For more information visit: www.thesacredarts.org


Sarah Gets a New Studio

The weekend after Christmas we moved everything out of Kemp Hall, hauled it down the street and settled into the new workspace on 5th Street. This makes this space my fourth studio on 5th Street!

Summer 2007

St. Joseph is Installed!

A very long awaited day has finally come! St. Joseph was installed at Our Lady of Mercy Catholic Parish on May 24th, just in time for Pentecost. Andrew Logan of Canal Street Studios and his assistant, Katie, were great. They picked up the marble sculpture and plaster carver's model from the US Customs inspection office in New York, trucked it down to Potomac, placed the stone and finished the job by dinner time. Our Lady of Mercy is planning a big celebration for both St. Joseph and the Virgin Annunciate some time in the fall. A date has not yet been set.

In other news, I am joining the artists of the Mother of God Artists Guild for a group exhibition at the Washington Theological Union. The show runs until the 12th of July and there will be an opening on June 20th at 4:30-6:30.Two works have been accepted into a traveling exhibition sponsored by the Foundation for Sacred Arts. The exhibit will open on August 31st at the National Shrine in Washington, DC. An opening event will be held the evening before, August 30th, beginning at 7:00 pm.It's been a busy and rewarding summer and I am excited to start some new projects. Thank you to all of you who have encouraged me through this very long and difficult project and a big thanks to everyone at Our Lady of Mercy for taking a chance on a young sculptor. (Pictured below, left: St. Joseph gets a ride on the fork lift. Right: Sarah and Andrew pose in front of the installed sculpture at the end of a long, hard day.)

Winter 2006

The Virgin is Installed

How many people does it take to move a two-ton sculpture of the Blessed Virgin out of the studio, into a truck, sixty-five miles down the road and into a niche in a church? We had quite a crew out there! I arrived at the studio of Malcolm Harlow in the Shenandoah Valley at ten in the morning. Malcolm was there with the Cambodian sculptor who had helped carve the piece, Chantou Oeur. The two of them were building a ramp to move the sculpture laterally out of the studio. They "got all Egyptian on us," as the Australian sculpture-mover quipped, and put wooden rollers beneath the base of the sculpture. They rigged a chain and cable to a giant old tree with a wrenching system. JC, the woodworker who did the door handles in the Harlow's home, was there operating the wrench. He'd adjust the chain and the sculpture would move forward a few inches along the wooden rollers. Then Chantou and Malcolm had to attach straps to the sculpture to lift it ever so slightly in order to move the rollers to the front as they rolled out the other end. Somehow I got in charge of operating the pulley system to lift the sculpture. "Pull up, Sarah!" It is amazing that a woman of my stature was able to lift such a heavy object using physics. (To all you kids out there- pay attention in science class, you'll need it!) Then the folks from Canal Street Studios, Andrew Logan and his brother Chris visiting from Australia, arrived with the crane and a truck. So how many people does it take?One stonecarver, a Cambodian artist, a woodworker, a sculptor (that's me!), another artist, two Australian sculpture-movers, a photographer and a small audience.

Once we got the sculpture on the truck, the movers wrapped her in a blanket and strapped down the marble. We were on our way! When we got the church, there was no problem using the crane to lower the Virgin onto a dolly designed especially for extra heavy objects. (Again with the physics!) They got the Virgin into the church with no problem, but we had to erect a pulley system able to lift the object and place her in to the niche. The sun set as fatigue overwhelmed our crew. So, we decided to get some rest and resume work the next day.

Work resumed the following morning, but we still couldn't get it in place. So, we had to leave things undone while the crew from Canal Street Studios went home in search of better equipment. They returned with a small fork lift.

Autumn 2006

Off to Italia

The past few weeks Erik and Sarah spent in Italy. They visited Rome, Pisa, Florence, Siena and San Gimignano, and Pietrasanta. After Sarah completed the clay sculpture of St. Joseph she had a plaster cast made and sent it to Studio Antognazzi in Pietrasanta, Italy. The stone carvers there selected a piece of marble from the mountains surrounding the Italian town. The sculpture is nearly complete and Sarah even learned a thing or two about wielding a chisel! (Pictured below: Sarah poses with St. Joseph in Pietrasanta with a pneumatic hammer and an official stone carver's paper hat.)

Virgin Nearing Completion

After so much work, the journey is coming close to an end. The Virgin Mary awaits at the carver's studio for final approval. The next step is to coordinate a team to install the nearly two ton sculpture at Our Lady of Mercy Catholic Church in Potomac, Maryland. (Pictured below: The Virgin nearly complete, August 2, 2006, at Malcolm's studio in Virginia.)

Winter 2005

Sarah M. Hempel and Erik A. Irani were married in Frederick, Maryland on the eighth of October!www.erikandsarah.us

Back to School

Sarah had the semester off due to her October wedding and lengthy honeymoon. Classes will resume in the Spring semester at Hood College. Sarah's goal is to finish with her course work by the 2006 fall semester, so she can begin working on her thesis in the Spring. She has also scheduled in some art courses to keep her fingers and mind nimble.

Studio News

The past few weeks have been a whirlwind of contractors and paint as the Iranis have been working hard to retrofit their small townhome basement into a suitable studio space. This is a temporary situation as Sarah works her way through school and the couple starts a family.

Summer 2005

St. Joseph in Stone

We are wrapping up the carver's model of St. Joseph and shipping him off to Italy in the next few months. There, he will be carved by a team of Italian carvers in Pietrasanta. This has been a lengthy and difficult project, but seeing it come closer and closer to fruition is tremendously rewarding!Meanwhile, the Virgin Mary is in the process of being completed at the stone-carver's studio and we hope to have an installation date this fall. These two sculptures have been a huge undertaking for this young artist. All of the bumps and bruises along the way have been tremendous learning experiences. Sarah hopes that her client will feel that the wait was well worth it and enjoy these two marble sculptures for many years to come!

Wedding Bells

October 8th, 2005 with be a big day for Sarah Hempel. It will be on this day she marries her beloved Erik Irani! The couple got engaged last year at the National Gallery of Art, when Erik got down on one knee in front of a sculpture fountain. You can read more about their plans, how they met and how he proposed at their wedsite: www.erikandsarah.us!The two will honeymoon at a top secret location and then fly to Michigan for a reception there with friends and family before returning home to Maryland and resume work on the 31st of October.

Studio Sabbatical

In the next few months, the soon-to-be Mrs. Irani is taking a short sabbatical from large-scale commissioned work (unless of course she is given an offer she can't refuse!) She plans to resume work after the New Year. She has many other irons in the fire as well: she plans to finish up her Master's of Arts degree as well as working on her first publication. Sarah is changing her name to Sarah Hempel Irani, but you can still find her here at www.HempelStudios.com!

Summer 2004

The Virgin in Stone


A plaster cast of the full-scale Blessed Virgin has been delievered to the stone-carver's studio in Virginia. Using the ancient method of splitting stone, Malcolm, the carver, and his assistant drilled holes in the stone and inserted dowel rods. The rods were then filled with water and as the wood expanden the stone split! Then they began with the hammers and chisels. We are planning an Advent installation celebration.St. Joseph is underway in the studio now. He is almost ready be draped and finished. (Pictured below: Sarah stands on the nine-ton block of marble she and Malcolm had imported from Italy.)





Traveling in the Summer

The summer has been a busy one this year. In addition to working at Hood College and managing things at the studio, Sarah has been here, there and everywhere! She traveled with her beau, Erik, to his neck of the woods, New York City, and visited the MET for the first time. Then off to her mom's hometown, Chicago! Chicago architecture has always inspired Sarah and she hopes to have some statuary grace some buildings of comperable beauty. (Pictured right: Sarah at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.)

Spring 2004

Madonna Ready to Go

After months of being at the studio, the Blessed Virgin, or the Madonna as some are want to call her, is ready for stone. The benefactor and some other representatives from Our Lady of Mercy made the trek up to Frederick for final inspections on the 14th of February. They gave me an enthusiastic "thumbs up" and the next step was to load her up and send her to Baltimore in order to be cast in plaster. The stone from Carrara, Italy is waiting patiently in New Jersey. I plan to bring the cast of the Virgin to the carver's studio sometime this week or next. We are aiming for the Feast of the Assumption in August as a possible celebration and dedication of the piece.Now we are ready to begin St. Joseph. He is currently a humanoid armature surrounded by piles of clay. I anticipate having a model in this week to launch the figure. (Pictured below: How many sculptors does it take to load a four-hundre pound Virgin into a truck?)

Sarah at Hood College

Since November, Sarah has been working as the interim Coordinator of Visual Resources at Hood College's slide library for the Art History and Archeology department. The job has official been published externally and she has an interview on St.Patrick's Day. May the Luck o' the Irish be with her!In addition to working at Hood College, she has enrolled in the Master's program with an aim to pursue Medieval Studies. This semester she is taking a course on Dante and Giotto, which just so happens to be taught by the editors of the Cambridge Companion to Giotto.

Winter 2003

Gallery Walk

On the 1st day of November, incidentally Sarah's birthday, Hempel Studios hosted its very first open studio as a participant in downtown Frederick's First Saturday Gallery Walk. It also happened to be Sarah's 26th birthday, so there was much celebration! Amidst the merriment, tragedy struck: Sarah lost the only corkscrew at the studio! Her friend and produce supplier, Jim, asked for a power drill, a 3" drywall screw and a pair of pliers. As her brother, Buck, held the wine bottles, Jim inserted a screw into each cork and pulled it out with lineman's pliers. Meanwhile, Reiner, Sarah's favorite model, ran to the corner liquor shop (only a half block away) and bought a new corkscrew for a dollar. "Yeah, we could have done that," Buck and Jim replied in unison. Well, at least the crisis was averted!

(Pictured to the right: Sarah upstairs in the gallery space of the studio at 116 1/2 with artwork by Grace Ellis Barber. Below: Farmer Jim and Brother Buck with drywall screws and pliers opening some merlot!)

The Blessed Virgin Update

The Blessed Virgin is well on her way to being completed-at least in clay! Sarah ordered the stone from Italy and it is on a barge somewhere in the mid-Atlantic right now. She anticipates having a plaster carver's model to the stone carver by January, when she will begin work on the enlarged St. Joseph as well.

Summer 2003

Update on the Blessed Virgin

A visit to Pat McEvoy's studio, Baltimore. McEvoy, using a Cartesian box, has been working diligently enlarging the 1/3 scale Mary maquette that Hempel designed for Our Lady of Mercy's sanctuary. Hempel will transport the six-foot Mary to her studio in October for final revisions and detail. A summer 2004 installation is anticipated.One can see the Cartesian box (left) surrounding the scale plaster model and the enlarged clay piece. The box allows the artist to take measurements in three dimensions!



First Open Studio

The first of hopefully several "open studios" is being planned for the first day of November. The city of Frederick hosts a First Saturday Gallery Walk. Every first Saturday over 50 shops and galleries keep their doors open late offering light fair and special exhibits. Come to the open studio at 5th Street after perusing all the shops uptown!