THE ART SPIRIT - Herman Falke

Pastor, teacher and sculptor, Herman Falke is an extraordinary man with remarkable talents. Born in the Netherlands, he has travelled the world over to study and teach. Falke has married his devotion to his Maker with a symbiotic belief that spiritual expression is essential to the arts.

In fact, his interests are so intuitively inter-woven that, in one particular instance, he instinctively solved an artist's dilemma by offering sticks of black incense from the church cupboard, to impart the dark tones needed for waxing sculptures in process!

Using precisely that kind of ingenuity, Herman's faith finds unique ways to integrate his major passions into his life's work. Even while serving as Pastor, with the St. Joan of Arc Church in Toronto, he kept a firing kiln tucked away in the vestry behind the altar!

Reminiscent of his fluttering white Pastor's vestments, Herman's Arkangel carries self-made, expressionistic wings, in an effort to capture his quiet, stately personal grace.

"Inside my empty bottle
I was constructing a lighthouse
while all others were making ships."

-- Charles Simic