ARTIST STATEMENT
 
 This exhibition includes a selection of drawings for sculptures with related small maquettes or
models. All my work begins with drawings – usually a series of them on a particular theme. And the
drawings serve as a blueprint for the later sculptures.
 
Origins of the drawings are the constant notations I make in my sketchbooks of shapes and forms
that arrest me with their particular dynamism or energy. Combined with other shapes these create
a unity on paper, with drawing materials of India Ink and gouache paint. Color is employed as a
defining element for each form, and in creating a compositional whole.
 
The maquettes evolve from the final drawing of a series and are cut out of sheet steel with an
acetylene torch. Their shapes and contours closely follow those in the drawing and the individual
pieces are welded together with their edges later ground to exact profile. Several coats of primer
paint are applied and the piece are then painted either monochromatic black or in various colors;
rarely following the original color scheme of the drawing.
 
The maquettes serve as basis for enlargement to full sized sculptures or monumental pieces.
Oftentimes the maquettes function solely as a means of determining the validity of the original
two-dimensional design on paper. Transforming it into a three dimensional sculpture with combined
shapes and forms determines how well it works as a sculptural unity and establishes its equilibrium
or lack thereof.
 
 
David Hayes