Stempka Designs

Huge thank you to FFJournal Magazine for the feature!! Somehow I just found out about this today from a friend in California 😂🙏🏻🫡

I wanted to thank Lisa Adams from Erie News Now for having me on - The Insider- this week!
We talked about a range of things. From how I got started, to what we're up to with Metalheads and America250.
As well as what has been going on with Stempka Designs!
If you get a chance check it out! Link below

https://www.erienewsnow.com/featured/the-insider/the-insider-local-metal-artist-in-the-spotlight/video_5808ea66-3f87-598a-8240-f45a689a1493.html

“The Inner Man”
My latest sculpture.
We shot these photos in two very different lights on purpose — some dramatic and shadowed to reveal hidden structure and quiet depth, others bright and glowing to capture rebirth, divine spark, and the steady light of the true self.
“The Inner Man” arrives like a quiet revelation cast in metal and light. This life-sized steel rod sculpture does not merely depict a human figure—it unveils one. Arms outstretched in a gesture that simultaneously recalls Leonardo’s Vitruvian Man and the crucified Christ, it stands suspended between two states: one foot planted in the material world, the other lifted toward the unknown. The head is replaced by a tight coil of steel rod spiraling upward like thought escaping the skull — an open, humming absence that sees more clearly than any portrait ever could.
The material itself is the message. Thousands of steel rods are woven, twisted, and tensioned into a translucent exoskeleton. Light passes through it, turning the sculpture into a living lantern. Dramatic shots ignite the negative space with warm orange and cool cyan, making the figure breathe from within. Brighter shots glow with religious serenity. This duality reveals the sculpture’s central thesis: the inner self is both shadowed and luminous, both ancient and newly born.
Symbolically, the two large copper rings encircle the figure as halo and orbit — suggesting eternal return, cycles of death and rebirth, and invisible energy fields. The dynamic pose perfectly embodies the poem below. The absence of a face is the ultimate democratic gesture, inviting us to see the faceless essence beneath every mask we wear.
Arms open—
not in surrender,
but in arrival.
A body not built,
but woven—
thread by thread
of something once unseen.
There is no face to read,
no eyes to follow,
and yet…
it sees.
It stands between moments—
one foot rooted in what was,
the other lifted
toward what could be.
Circles echo behind it,
like ripples in still water,
like time remembering
how to begin again.
And in the quiet metal,
in the spaces between form,
something breathes—
not loudly,
not urgently,
but steadily…
like a soul
remembering its light.

Extremely grateful for this feature in the April issue of The Fabricator Magazine!!

My journey has never been just about making things out of metal.

It's been about taking a skill I've built over the years and turning it into something creative, meaningful, and lasting through Metalheads and Stempka Designs.

I'm thankful to The Fabricator for the feature, and thankful to everyone who has supported my work along the way. Every project, every conversation, every opportunity has helped shape this path.

I still feel like I'm learning, growing, and pushing myself with every piece I create, and I'm excited for what's
ahead

A small tease from the photo shoot Saturday with 🔥
excited to share the full photo album Tuesday with you all.