We were lucky to catch up with Hilary Paul McGuire recently and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Hilary Paul, thanks for joining us today. Did you always know you wanted to pursue a creative or artistic career? When did you first know?

Having been teaching math in Jr College for 15 years, I was out hiking one day and came across a pile of junk iron and steel used by an AD1900 homesteader. One particular item struck me with not only the beauty of its original design, but also its strength, wear, patination, and character. Its interesting shape and holes for connection to other pieces seemed artistic, yet begging for completion. I looked around and started putting it together with other such pieces which I have come to call “Antique Iron with Character and Connectivity.” I later learned that the original piece was called “A Buzzard Wing Sweep.”
It seemed so beautiful and full of character from its several decades of both use and abuse, that it warranted respect and reverence without alteration—like I would give to a wise and wizened grandparent.
Hence, when I fit or bolt such pieces together, I never bend, cut, or weld them. I thus preserve each piece just the way I found it. So each of my antique iron sculptures is a baby museum to display the individual parts of a new sculpture. See several on this website: bit.ly/hpmcguire

Hilary Paul, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

As a teacher of math I got accustomed to responding to whatever need I saw in my classroom and the lives of my students. So when, in my leisure time, I encountered the inherently strong and earthy beauty of worn, sometimes-broken, and noble antique iron, then saw it going to waste, I felt drawn to put it to work, to show its artistic possibilities to the world. Furthermore, such items seemed to speak to me saying, “Show us to the world.” But knowing that I couldn’t just put a single piece like a buzzard wing sweep or a chunk of railroad track on a museum shelf and expect that people would see its nobility, I started joining pieces together to make sculptures.
There is something about the millennia-long relationship between mankind and iron, that touches the hearts and souls of humanity. When the iron takes on age, patination, and sometimes even breakage, we feel a kinship with our own lives. My purpose is to help people to see and feel that relationship and the new life which can spring from it.
As of April, 2024, only one of my sculptures is available for sale. I feel it’s my most important piece. Title: “To the Ancient Respect Is Due.” It has been juried into several California art shows and 2 International ones located in LA and Budapest. I do not sell the irreplaceable original, only nigh-perfect copies which cost $1,000 each to make. For details, questions, and discussion, first see my website, then email me: [email protected]

Is there mission driving your creative journey?

I am always working with and for the betterment of young men and women (ages 7-57) who have more than the general difficulty fitting into mainstream American society, from family to neighborhood streets, police, all levels of school, and earning a living. Since my desire to reach has always exceeded my grasp, I started by writing a book, “Hopie and the Los Homes Gang: a Gangland Primer.” When I put it into their hands, Hopie spoke for all, “Naw, man, we don’t read no book.”
Switching to something more like them—guys who call themselves “hard dudes”, I decided to use castoff, discarded, rusty, but still strong and hefty, iron and steel. That is my medium to make tactile, eye-catching sculptures.
Though I have little proof tht my efforts have been appreciated by gang members, I am glad I have tried.
My motto, which I share with all is: “There’s not much I can do for the world, but what I can, I do.”

What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?

I’ve always thought of my art (books and sculptures) as something I just felt compelled to do because I saw the needs of gang members and the beauty and possibilities of antique iron. But thanks to your asking these questions, I easily see now that my art is a very rewarding blessing in my own life. I can only hope and pray that my trilogy of books and two dozen sculptures continue to be not just interesting, but inspirational for all who see and read them. All can write a book (just put one sentence after another thoughtfully) and every human is inherently artistic (whatever we do, we are making an impression on the lives and world around us). Let us do it wisely and well.
Art is the only thing I’ve ever done which is totally and solely of my own initiative. It has sprung from pure inspiration and an attempt to fulfill needs which no one else was fulfilling.
I must admit that it is nearly impossible to sell books and art to people who don’t read and never enter museums or art galleries. But, though there’s not much we can do for the world, we keep on trying.
I consider it to have been by the Providence of God that I met and was receptive to the friendship of gang members and that I perceived beauty and artistic possibilities in junked and rusted iron. My goal is to use books and sculptures not in the same way as Michelangelo did, but for the same purpose: to give glory to God and to do my best to advance God’s kingdom on earth.
From the 5th grade I have always known that I was going to be a teacher—to bring a twinkle of understanding and appreciation to people’s eyes–even to people who don’t know they need to know. My books and sculptures are my extra-classroom art. They are on the Internet at bit.ly/hpmcguire
That is my reward.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://sites.google.com/site/hilarypaulmcguire/home
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/ProfMcGuire

Image Credits
Marvin Harris – Strength in Beauty photo only California Art Club – Bonita Museum photo only