Lin Emery, sculptor of movement, nature, dies at 94

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Lin Emery, a New Orleans-based artist whose delicately balanced moving sculptures can be seen worldwide, has died. She was 94.

Emery’s hallmark sculptures often used silvery metallic materials to reflect the nature around her. She died Thursday, according to her son, Brooks Braselman.

“She wanted to convey the movement of nature. She loved movement and dance. Anything to do with movement. She wanted to take the forces of nature and put it into her art,” Braselman said.

Emery overcame discrimination as a woman in what was a male-dominated field to forge a successful career. She kept working well into her 90s at her studio in a New Orleans neighborhood, designing work for hospitals, cities, and private clients. Asked in 2016 whether she had any one piece, commission or honor of which she was particularly proud, she said, “Not really. I’m always hopto do better.”

Emery’s career began at age 23, on a whim. She wandered into a Paris studio and asked about lessons. She found a lasting passion.

Emery spent two years at The Sculpture Center in New York, where she learned to weld and cast metal.

Back in New Orleans, an architect saw her 1952 abstract “Archangel Michael” — a 3-foot-tall (1-meter-tall) composition of rounded angles suggesting wings — and commissioned her to make a more realistic piece for a church he was designing. That led to more church commissions.

Her work is on display across the Crescent City and its suburbs. There are angels, pietas — representations of the Virgin Mary mourning over the dead body of Christ — and Stations of the Cross at churches. A sculpture in front of the Jewish Community Center is an abstract work showing birds in flight.