Entertaining Angels: Faith and Sculpture With Timothy Schmalz

Today on the show, Lucy Branch speaks to Timothy Paul Schmalz, a contemporary Canadian figurative sculptor whose large-scale religious bronze works have found their way into some of the most significant public spaces in the world — including St. Peter's Square in Rome, where his monumental Angels Unawares stands permanently and cities across the globe where his Homeless Jesus continues to be installed.In this conversation, Tim talks about walking away from art school, building a practice entirely on his own terms, and the discipline of a creative life devoted to a single purpose. He reflects on the faith it takes to begin a piece without knowing where it will go — and on the year the first cast of Homeless Jesus sat in a crate because he couldn't find a home for it.He also makes a quietly compelling case for why public bronze sculpture may be one of the most powerful mediums available to an artist today.⁠Please support the show by buying ⁠Bronze Behaving Badly: Principles of Bronze Conservation⁠ or ⁠Wax On Wax Off: How To Care For Bronze Sculpture⁠ or fiction A Rarer Gift Than Gold, or Restoration MurderThe statue on our podcast graphic (Pegasus and Bellerophon) is by sculptor Amy Goodman. This podcast is created by ⁠Antique Bronze⁠