Cesar Lopez
 Artist, Sculptor, Master Craftsman

“From the beginning, I just knew I had to help
build “Las Madres.”

Cesar Lopez

Cesar Lopez is a self taught artist whose work ranges from paintings in oils to large scale steel sculpture made from recycled scrap metal. Inspired by dreams, the heavens above, and natural forms found in nature, Cesar’s calls his original and deeply spiritual art “Celestial Sculpture.”

Born in 1965 on an isolated ranch in Southeastern Arizona, Cesar’s ancestry is Yaqui Indian and Mayan and his Yaqui grandfather was a medicine man. Cesar, a man of God, follows in a similar tradition.  He walks gently in both worlds.

The artist says, “While I may make a sketch before I work, things take off in their own way transforming my hands into the hands of a conductor in an orchestra. Each piece has its own tune. Suddenly, with my hands in motion, objects seem to take music to themselves in a Celestial dance where beauty, love and freedom emerge.”

Cesar Lopez’s sculptures run the gamut from the massive works of Richard Serra to delicate, floating pieces resembling the work of Alexander Calder. His sculptures have been shown at the Nova Space Gallery, Stellar Vision in Tucson, and at the Smithsonian Whipple Observatory in Amado, AZ. In 2000, his work was shown at the Arts and Industries building at the Smithsonian Institute in D.C. He has been reviewed in the Nogales International & the Washington Post.

For Cesar, his current pursuit - creating elegant works from Damascus steel - is a “dream come true.” He is inspired by the mythic history of Damascus steel (a lost art for many years), and challenged by the almost impossible work of forge welding Damascus steel.

“Eagle’s Heart” Life size; steel, auto paint

Lopez first learned the age old craft of traditional Blacksmithing at his father’s knee. Missing his deceased father, Cesar decided to rebuild the family’s forge on his land in Amado, Arizona. He has been working with flame, hammer & anvil ever since. He fashions many of his own tools and works completely by hand using no machinery.

Making a Damascus blade involves many steps, including but not limited to annealing and cutting the steel, heat treating and tempering. Cesar will weld, forge and pound fifty sheets of steel together, cut that into fourths, and the resulting two hundred layers will be forge welded again and again until the artist has created elastic steel.

Like Samurai swords which can contain 2000 or more layers of steel, each one of Cesar Lopez’s blades, with handles crafted from finished steel or natural wood, can take anywhere from 3 months to a full year to create.