The inspiration behind Distant Beauty came from a vintage Cuban poster I had been holding onto for years. I loved the organic simple lines of the face and wanted to recreate the feeling in a sculpture. 

The name Distant Beauty came about because the perspective gained from viewing the artwork from afar is necessary to fully appreciate the piece. When I had first completed it and set it in my yard, I wasn’t confident in the work. It didn’t convey what I had hoped it would but I soon got a phone call from a friend who had seen it as he drove by my house and loved it. I went down the end of the long driveway, looked up, and voila, I saw what he saw and it was just as I hoped it would be! 

Distant Beauty is very organic in its feel and gave birth to the softer Bea Girl. It was also the first sculpture I made that combined Stainless Steel with Cor-Ten. The first Distant Beauty was made of painted mild steel. This led me to discover that I am a terrible painter, so the oxidized Cor-Ten made more sense for this sculpture. After seeing the finished piece, I really liked the result of combining the two metals and I did it again with Olive Branch. Since then, I have used the combination of materials in several other sculptures and will continue to do so going forward.