While heading east on 14 mile towards Orchard Lake Road and Northwestern Highway, I’m sure you’ve noticed the fairly new West Bloomfield Township entry sign. Installed in the fall of 2019, the “Gateway Monument,” which was designed in collaboration with landscape architect Tad Krear of Birmingham’s LAND Design Studio, also includes large-scale artwork built by Detroit resident and business owner Scott Berels.
“It’s representative of West Bloomfield’s nature features as the city is big on wetlands and the environment,” Berels said while describing his 30-foot tall sculpture made of metal tubes that give the appearance of reeds.
Krear said that it was a “big deal” they were able to pull off this project since the sign is in a Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT) right of way, which he described as normally being “highly regulated.” However, Governor Granholm’s 2003 executive directive required MDOT to incorporate Context Sensitive Solutions (CSS), a collaborative interdisciplinary approach to developing transportation projects.
According to michigan.gov, under CSS, “MDOT solicits dialogue with local governments, road commissions, industry groups, land use advocates and state agencies early in a project's planning phase. This dialogue helps to ensure that bridges, interchanges, bike paths and other transportation projects ‘fit’ into their communities. The CSS approach results in projects that respect a community's scenic, aesthetic, historic, economic and environmental character.”
With the go-ahead, Krear thought it’d be neat to include a piece of art in his drawings to give the sign a new dimension. He said the Township loved the concept, and Krear told them he knew “just the guy to make it” for them. “Scott is super talented and creative with a brilliant mechanical and high-tech mind,” he said. “He also has access to a lot of people with resources and special machinery.”
Berels’ grandmother, Judy Smith, thinks the West Bloomfield sculpture is beautiful as it reminds her of nature whereas three-year-old West Bloomfield resident Gabriel Alexander refers to it as “The Noodles.” “They say that if your art has invoked a response, you’ve done well, and Scott’s work definitely has people talking,” Krear said.
Prior to the West Bloomfield sculpture, Berels had built two other permanent, COR-TEN steel sculptures: a 24-foot tall sundial gnomon in Rochester, which was designed by Franklin artist Russell Thayer, as well as Judith Hoffman’s “American Dream” house sculpture in Portland, Maine. He is also currently working on a COR-TEN steel gateway arch in Downtown Highland but added that COR-TEN is only one of many materials he works with.
Berels has his own studio in Detroit called Def Fab Design, which was founded in 2017. The 5,000-square foot warehouse is equipped with both metal and woodworking equipment that are used to build various sculptures, furniture, lighting, signage and architectural elements for businesses, residential clients, general contractors, municipalities and other artists who are looking for fabrication work. Additionally, his personal art pursuits are focused in cast iron, and he utilizes many of the mold-making materials to make non-metal sculptures and paintings, as well.
“As a multidisciplinary artist, I’m interested in work that displays exceptional craftsmanship,” Berels said. “I generally enjoy work made in metal, but I also like working in a variety of materials. Formally, my work is organic because it’s reminiscent of nature and raw in its surface treatment, but I’m interested in moving into a more polished direction that involves technology and electronics. I’d also like to push my work into a more conceptual realm that deals with social commentary and the human condition.”
For fabrication and fine art inquiries, call him at (248)-835-5898, email him at sberels@gmail.com or message him on Instagram @deffabdesign.