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Dick Kappel is a native-born Texan. His
sculptures are a reflection of his life in the Texas Hill
Country. |
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Dick Kappel, born in New Braunfels, Texas, is a metal
sculptor working in copper, brass, and steel. His work includes
representational wildlife designed with a Southwestern flavor as
well as more stylized human figures. Currently, he is showing work
at galleries
throughout the West and Midwest, and many of his
sculptures have been part of national and regional juried shows.
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A cypress along the Guadalupe River adds to the
scenic local beauty. |
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Dick Kappel was raised in the heart of the Texas Hill
Country and is descended from a German immigrant who was a
soldier, a Texas Ranger, and an early circuit-riding preacher.
Dick’s work reflects his dual heritage of practical action and
spiritual understanding, for Dick is himself a practical man -
engineer, husband, father - who has found ways since childhood to
give expression to his creative vision. At times one side - the
practical or the creative - may dominate but always the two have
complemented and energized each other.
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Aluminum bust is an early self-portrait of Dick
Kappel. |
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Very early in his life, Dick began experimenting with
the everyday materials he found within his reach. As a mischievous
boy of seven or eight, he fashioned from the melted black tar of a
nearby construction site a life-sized football helmet complete
with ear holes. After wearing the helmet during a hot Texas
afternoon, Dick discovered that the tar had stuck to his hair.
This first masterpiece was destroyed when his head had to be
shaved to remove the helmet. Later, as a teenager, he cast an
actual plaster mold of his head from which emerged an aluminum
bust that is today a premier piece of his personal collection.
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Select pieces from Dick Kappel's collection are
on display at galleries
throughout the US. |
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Dick funneled these improvised and sometimes
unappreciated artistic outbursts into a degree from the University
of North Texas in Denton, where he continued to explore ways of
converting steel, brass, and copper of the workaday world into
objects of beauty and meaning. His nature pieces were displayed in
and sold through art galleries in Texas. His creative side was in
full development.
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Dick Kappel's studio is located on his 12-acre
retreat outside New Braunfels, in the heart of Texas Hill Country.
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Then Dick, along with his wife and two children,
moved into a small community within Dallas. For the next 21 years,
he worked as an engineer, belonged to a neighborhood church, took
part in the life of the community, and generally led a
conventional middle class life. Art was in his home, but the
active production of new art was put aside for a while.
Practicality was the order of the day.
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Dick Kappel shows off his Rawhide piece,
mounted on sandstone and on display at The Old
Mill Store in Wimberley, Texas. |
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By 1993, however, the balance had shifted again. With
children grown, educated, and independent, Dick returned to the
nurturing solitude of the Hill Country. The freedom and vitality
of his hometown world reinvigorated Dick’s expressions, and
today he is busy in his studio nestled outside New Braunfels,
Texas among the oak and cedar of his 12-acre retreat.
Art for Dick Kappel today is not just what
brightens and characterizes his home, it is once again the medium
for a practical man to portray the strength and beauty of his
vision.
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