Advent through Epiphany 2003-2004

Joel Haas
"Rex Angel"

Bronze casting

I created a large bas relief for the chemotherapy waiting area for the Rex Hospital Cancer Center here in Raleigh, NC.  The wings of the angel that bear up the angel/patient are made from impressions of the hands of the doctors and nurses and other care givers and survivors at the cancer center.
 
I deliberately chose a 21 year old African American woman as the model to emphasize cancer can strike anybody.  When she had finished modeling, she told me she herself had survived cervical cancer!
 
Ironically, since the piece is over life size, the angel's own hands are the only "unreal" ones---I had to carve them separately and add them to the finished casting.