Besides his own work, the sculptor Michael Bílek, a native of Turnov, has dedicated his time to restoration work and public art, mostly in Krušné Hory and the region between Ústí nad Labem and Chomutov. He has worked with various materials like metal, stone and plaster. The first sculpted portraits created in these materials came in the late 1960s. However, his principal works have been created in wood. The artist found his path to wood very soon after his graduation from the Prague Academy of Fine Arts. In the course of more than fifty years of creative work, his wooden people also underwent certain developments. The initially robust and bulky works were later replaced by lighter sculptures. Yet there is a connecting element in them - the human soul. When taking a look into Bílek's world of colourful “figurines”, we see an affiliation between the individual figures and a thoughtful polychromy and symbolism - Christian, social and family-related.
