Eustis Estate
Our Better Angel
Madeleine Lord
“The mystic chords of memory will swell when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our natures.” Abraham Lincoln, from first inaugural address, March 4, 1861.
Angels as guardians, messengers, avengers are a part of the intersection between our now and eternity. They fill churches and sacred stories. Sculptural angels intervene between the inexplicable, unbearable, imaginary, and our physical contextual now. They stand still and we keep going but somehow they are always relevant.
In his Nov. 7, 2020, presidential election victory speech, when Joe Biden appealed to our “better angels” to navigate the distance between pandemic and health, between sedition and democracy, between racist violence and justice for all, he was asking us all to merge our responsibility as citizens with a higher purpose.
This sculpture started out as the angel Gabriel, the lily-bearing messenger to the Virgin Mary. It has since “grown wings” to carry a deeper and more current message: love one another as we are all loved.
Biography
Madeleine Lord has worked with steel for over 30 years and has numerous permanent public art installations in New England and nationally. Work welded from scraps transforms metal pulled from a vast metal recycle center. The scraps imply the results, which may be a figure, fauna, or flora, where you see the image first and the ingredients second. Public Art includes Giraffe, Ostrich, Mr. Bo Jangles, and Angel owned by the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston. Earlier works are cut steel figures. These include Revolutionary Figures in Fort Washington in Cambridge, Mass., The Enduring American Spirit the first 9/11 permanent memorial in Whitinsville, Mass., and recently a Chef Picking Herbs commissioned by Community Servings in Jamaica Plain, Mass. Other locations for cut steel work include Gary, Ind.; Dallas, Texas; and San Bernardo, Calif.
Permanent Public Work
Giraffe, Ostrich, Mr. Bo Jangles, Seated Angel, 2016, Federal Reserve Plaza, Boston
Angel, 2014, Milton Cemetery Milton, Mass.
Enduring American Spirit, 2003, Whitinsville, Mass.
Good Shepherd, 2001, Church of the Good Shepherd, San Bernardo, Calif.
Shadow Mews Figures – 2000, Austin Ranch, Dallas, Texas
Saint Francis on a Park Bench, 1995, University of Indiana, Newman Center, Gary Ind.
Revolutionary Figures, 1987, Fort Washington Park Cambridge, Mass.
Sunday Times, Brookline Art Center, Brookline, Mass.
Seers, Forest Hills Cemetery, Boston
Shepherd, Santa Catalina School, Monterey, Calif.
Lynch School Buddy Garden, Winchester, Mass.
Center School Remembered, Town Center Courtyard, Bedford Mass.
Buddy Garden, Lynch School, Winchester, Mass.
Peter French Memorial, Winchester, Mass.
Umbrella Parade, Winchester Public Library, Winchester, Mass.
The Enduring American Spirit, Whitinsville, Mass.
Temporary Installations
2002-3 Whitefish, White Caps, Grant Park, City of Chicago 2003-4
1999 Tom Watson Anti-Nuclear Speech, cut steel posters, Lion and Lamb Peace Center, Bluffton, Ohio
Museum – Exhibits
- 2012 Asheville Art Museum; Chasing the Image, Retrospective curated by Dr. James P. W. Thompson, two works in permanent collection
- Touring Exhibit, El Reciclajeen la Escultura, Saltillo and Coahuila, Mexico
Current Galleries
LALI Shop, Saint James, Long Island, N.Y.
Patricia Carega Gallery, Center Sandwich, N.H.
New England Sculptors Association – NESculptors.org
National Association of Women. Artists – NAWA.org