THOMAS BEALE

My friend Jim had a couple of passes to the gigantic Chelsea Piers sports center, probably one of the swankier and more expensive places to work out in NYC. We were there to swim and I gotta admit that it’s sweet water: saline, glass enclosed, perfect temperature with views the Hudson and a sun deck right outside on the water with great scenery which we partake in afterwards.

We head to lunch afterwards and pass this open warehouse with this immense, egg-like wood sculpture sitting just inside the door, half illuminated like the shrine of some beloved religious relic. You almost feel as if you show bow down and prostrate yourself before it and give thanks.

The artist, Thomas Beale invites us in his temporary studio and explains his method, taking found wood branches and fashioning them into complex conglomerates that he hews into well-polished and rendered shapes, like carved marble. He’s incredibly humble and talks excitedly about the process while two men, who I presume are friends of his, linger in the background, standing aimlessly and saying nothing.