Website updated!

Just added a few more painting images to the gallery page of the website.

The titles are:

Slaughtered object
Legs with feet
Stained Canvas

Enjoy!

108th Annual Student Exhibition

May 8 - 31, 2009

at
Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts

Presented in the Samuel M.V. Hamilton Building
(Northwest corner of Broad and Cherry, Philadelphia, PA)

Opening reception May 8th 5:00 - 8:30pm

Featuring the recent works of Christopher Orapello

"Reunited" Has Been Installed

This morning the granite stone base for "Reunited," the 9/11/01 Memorial sculpture, was delivered a day earlier than we initially planned. The installation went extremely well and the final piece looks wonderful! It always amazes me when something I had envisioned comes to fruition. I now no longer have to see it in my mind, but can now look upon it with my own eyes as a reality and as an object in space. And now others can see and experience what I have been planning for the last two years!

I would just like to thank everyone who helped out and those individuals who contributed to this project to make it possible. A special thank you to Joseph Halpin and Jeremiah Hawkins for choosing to involve me in the designing and making of this monument. As an artist it was a great opportunity, but as a Freemason and as an American it meant so much more to be a part of it. Thank you.

Installation

It looks as if on September 26th the granite base for "Reunited" is going to be delivered which means we will be able to finally install the sculpture.

As of late...

As of now, we are still waiting for the granite base to be delivered so that "Reunited" can be installed in it's final location and be on permanent public display. However, the stone is not late as we were originally told late August or early September, but the anticipation of it is exciting.

I began some new work on Friday and I hope to have some new imagery for my online gallery soon.

"Reunited" has been Received!

I delivered the "Reunited" sculpture to its future permanent home yesterday morning. It was the first time that the administration of the Masonic Home, and those responsible for involving me in the project, have seen the sculpture since the two pieces of I-beam (relics from the World Trade Center) had been given to me to make a sculpture with. Everyone said that they were very pleased with the way the sculpture came out and were amazed at how well the once dirty, rusty, asbestos covered I-beams cleaned up into beautiful pieces of metal with such intricate textures and markings. I myself had been very happy with it as well and also became amazed by it during its finishing stages. I look forward to installing it so I can see it once again and see it upon its black granite stone base for the first time finally making the sculpture complete. Since the base was such a part of my original design, to me the sculpture is not entirely finished as of yet. It is currently resting in a small corner of a boardroom for Monday when those who work there will come in and see it for the first time. I hope they enjoy it as much as I do.

It's strange, this whole time this sculpture design has been in my head. I knew what it was going to look like and up until now, I imagine that to some people it had been a thing of myth, something the artist had been talking about and describing for several years. It had not been until yesterday that that myth has grown into a reality making it tangible, allowing others to experience it. It's an interesting thought to me and I am glad to have played a part in this project and to have had the opportunity to design and create this sculpture and to share my abilities as an artist with others.

9/11 Memorial is completed!

It's been a long road, but finally "Reunited," the 9/11 Memorial, is finished. Made from two polished pieces of I-Beam from the World Trade Center carefully arranged and mounted on a circular steel base. This sculpture will then be mounted on a 30" tall block of black granite. The overall sculpture will stand at about 6 feet tall. Though it won't be fully installed until later in the summer, tomorrow I will be delivering it to it's new home, which will be in the Fellowship Center of the Masonic Home in Burlington, New Jersey. A dedication ceremony will be planned for September. The official date has yet to be announced, but it may be on or around 9/11/08 in memory of the attack on the World Trade Center.