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February 2008:
Meld Artists Transform Scrap into Garden and Home Art
Artists Mia Meyer and Greg Gabel, the husband and wife team behind the young company Meld, feature their metal and
glass artwork at the SE Portland Artwalk on 
March 1st and 2nd. It's a rare show for the company, which works almost
exclusively by commission. The couple transforms recycled steel and glass into sculptures for home and garden and smaller
pieces for mantles and other display areas.
They are both deliberate artists yet almost accidental entrepreneurs. Passersby who saw their sculptures displayed
in the garden of their Ladd's Addition home in Southeast Portland stopped to ask about the artwork. The questions soon
turned into requests and a business was born. The couple have been commissioned for fences, trellises, arbors and
many other pieces.
Each piece is distinctive but share certain characteristics. Gabel turns the hard metal into fluid frames that hold
luminous glass shapes. The glass works swim with multicolored shapes inside them and are created by Gabel, Meyer or both artists.
The couple chose the name Meld to signify a collaboration of materials, people (clients) and the artistic sensibility.
It also symbolizes the artistic teamwork between husband and wife. "Metal and glass are kind of contradictory materials. Metal being very hard and crude and glass being more delicate," Gabel says.
"Yet metal is more forgiving to work with and glass more technically exacting. it requires precision or it breaks."
The couple look at all surfaces as opportunities for art. A visit to their home shows sculpted handrails, glass works on walls and shelves, stained glass screens on windows,
and even toilet paper holders and belt racks sculpted from metal. When there is no surface, the couple creates one, hence the glass and metal sculptures rising in the garden. Art is a lifestyle as much as a vocation.
By day, Gabel is a glass artist and production manager at Bullseye Glass Co, the venerable studio that produces color glass for art and architecture. Meyer is an art teacher at Sunnyside Environmental School, teaching elementary and middle school students in a variety of techniques. She also is led a student team in the creation of the school's outdoor art - mosaic birdbaths and stepping stones - and indoor murals including a signature sunflower motif at the school's entrance.
To participate in the SE Portland Artwalk, mark your calendar for the weekend of March 2 and 3rd and visit www.seportlandartwalk.com.
To reach , call 503.880.8062
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