David Talon traces its lineage back to an earlier study Eben Markowski calls the "Pipe Eagle," a disciplined exercise in building a bird of prey from cylindrical industrial steel alone. That first attempt never fully resolved for him, and the piece evolved into something more layered: a hybrid form where hard, structural steel is softened by compound, hand shaped plumage, aluminum feathers heat treated with patina and worked through metal shrinking and stretching techniques, then welded over the original steel frame. The wings from the pipe eagle remain part of his visual vocabulary even now, shapes he considers too beautiful to abandon, though on their own they never captured the settled weight of a perched wing.

The sculpture's core intention is anatomical honesty in metal terms: steel stands in for bone, talon, and beak, the sturdy architecture beneath the bird, while aluminum carries the lightness of feather. Talon and beak are the emphasis, the points where the eagle's power concentrates. For Markowski, the piece represents a concept still very much alive rather than a finished statement. Even embedded in this single sculpture, it's a direction he intends to return to.

AVAILABLE AT CANYON ROAD CONTEMPORARY.