Christmas Tree. 8 ½ x 6 feet. Base: Painted wood, porcelain, and stained glass. 1995. In 1976, when I was a senior in high school, my mother gave birth to my youngest brother, Michael. To commemorate his birth I began assembling the elements of this tree. Inspired by the Angel Tree at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, it is fast becoming a work of installation art. It has been described as an obsession, but I prefer to think of it as a labor of love. This is the tree as it appeared in my studio in 1996.
The image is mapped or click here for details.

“Love is child’s play once you’ve known obsession.”

——Calvin Klein

 

Cripia (Adam and the New Adam).
18 x 19 x 18 inches. Bisque porcelain and wood. Work-in-progress. In this portion of the relief, Christ as the New Adam places the crown of betrothal on the head of Adam and breathes new life into him.

Cripia (Eve and the New Eve).
18 x 19 x 18 inches. Bisque porcelain and wood. Work-in-progress. Mary too, is sometimes described as the New Eve since she chose to trust God’s messenger whereas Eve chose to trust the serpent. In this portion of the relief, Eve is seen caught in the serpent’s coil. She steadies herself on Mary, the New Eve, who treads upon the serpent’s head.
Every now and then I play hooky from everything I should be working on and make another figure for a new base for the tree. This new design is conceived as a 12-pointed star with a frieze of relief figures running round its 24 faces. These images represent the two faces of one of these points. Design for a porcelain relief, Blue Angels, Angel of St. Matthew, and St. Michael, da Art-Angel from the figure drawings gallery, are designs for additional figures from this project.


Epiphany Greeting. 4 x 6 inches.
Laser copy collage and press-type. 2002. My 2002 Epiphany greeting . The inside text read:
© 1982 Gary J. Speziale. All rights reserved.

Cartoon, The Miracle of Cleveland Avenue. (Detail of Bobby and the Arcangel Raphael.) Detail shown 24 x 30 inches. Metallic marker and Crayola crayons on craft paper. 1982. I painted the windows of my parent’s house with decorations for various holidays. This is the cartoon for one of 18 windowpanes I painted for the last Christmas I lived home. The images included portraits of the neighborhood children.

 

 

©

All images on this website are original works of art, and are protected under the copyright laws of the United States. All images and content on this website are © 1966, 1982, 1986, 1987, 1988, 1989, 1990, 1992, 1993, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 2000, 2001 or 2002 by Gary J. Speziale unless otherwise stated. All rights reserved. No unauthorized reproduction, transmission, or use is permitted without prior written approval. You have been invited into my home on the Internet—Don’t leave with the silverware.

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