A note from Michael Parkes – When I decided to start sculpture again, after a 12 year hiatus, I knew exactly where to look for my first idea – I pulled out my old sketch book from 1994 and found the sketches where I had first turned the Angel of August lithograph idea into a sculpture. There it was, all sketched out. I clearly remember why it was titled that because the stone litho was almost never completed. I had convinced my printers to stay open the first two weeks of August to squeeze in one more stone litho project. The print shop normally always closed at this time because the heat made printing almost impossible. With high humidity and heat that could melt the grease litho crayons, it was a miracle that the stone litho was ever printed. So I changed my original title from Sleeping Angel to Angel of August because she helped us through that hot summer. She deserved to be a sculpture.