childhood, when he would build scenery and structures for his model railroad layout. He
often spent all of his money on things he could craft and build, including model kits, balsa
wood and train track. His passion led to college where he earned a Commercial Art degree.
For over a decade, he worked as a designer and airbrush illustrator. Inspired by Sci-Fi TV
shows, he began building model spaceships in his spare time, “kit bashing” and creating
new designs from kit parts. He learned how to make molds and cast resin parts. He then
channeled this experience back toward art, with a spiritual passion to explore & express these
drives in painting and bas-relief sculpture.
He currently works in ornamental preservation. His projects include the restoration
of statuary figures at Belmont University, and the mosaic Dragon sculpture of Fannie Mae
Dees Park. This restoration experience has taught him how to mold and model sculpture
with weather-proof, durable cements and materials.
Inspired by a trip to the beach, he found some weathered seashells and noticed the
spiraling forms. Reminded that the shape of the Milky-Way Galaxy is also a spiral, He
gained confidence to experiment with freestanding sculptural forms that express
transcendent energy. He began using aluminum wire and mesh to build flowing armatures,
which would be coated in cements or self-hardening stucco mixtures.
Being interested in the big questions of spiritual origins, meanings, destiny of
mankind within the intentions of the universe, he focused on how he could express this in a
way that would remind him to live his best life, and practice his best self. Within the
mysteries of existence there are possibilities for transformation. Transformation is the one
thing fascinating the creation of his work, because mankind holds a unique place between
heaven & earth. In Novak’s work there are forms of swirling energy. There are crystalline
spires that come up out of the earth and transform into blooms of possibility. There are
figures caught in sublime moments. In the same way, we come from the earth and reach for
something more than what we are, in a desire to become something more.
Anthony Novak creates his work using specialty cement mix designs, such as glass
fiber, polymer reinforced concrete and Forton gypsum cement. Some forms are cast into
rubber molds. Other forms are direct-modeled over armatures made of metal wire and mesh.
Shapes are sometimes joined with epoxy, refined by carving and finished with acrylic paints
and polyurethane sealer. Of course, this all begins with drawing, which is fundamental to
creative vision. It includes sketching out ideas and exploring forms on paper, or in wire
before deciding what to shape with cement.
