Painted onto an original wooden foundry pattern, once a tool in the making of cast metal, this work carries the scars, smoke, and labor of a vanished era. The triangular form, weathered by decades of use, still bears the original bolt holes and burn marks, now reimagined as part of the composition.
In the foreground, the silhouette of a lone steelworker leans into the furnace's heat. Above him, molten orange light fractures across beams and girders.
This is not a portrait of a single man, but a tribute to all who labored inside the mills. The salvaged pattern itself becomes part of the story: what once shaped iron now holds the memory of those who shaped a nation.
- Collections: Cory Bonnet