A specially designed, whimsical, entertaining and engaging sculpture titled “Little Lil’ Joe’s Toy Truck Salvage,” by Joe Barrington, is on display at The Grace Museum.

The Grace, along with four other nationally accredited art museums that comprise the West Texas Triangle Consortium, are presenting a regionwide exhibition of Barrington’s work. Each museum will exhibit a work by Barrington throughout the summer of 2008. The other museums are The Ellen Noel Museum in Odessa, The San Angelo Museum of Fine Arts, The Old Jail Art Center in Albany and The Museum of the Southwest in Midland.

This summer the Triangle features the work of Barrington, a sculptor who employs a sense of humor along with his welding torch. The artist tells how his father gave him his first welding hood at the age of two as he followed his dad around the shop. Cutting, welding and forming steel has been in his blood ever since. Making art was a natural progression with an understanding of the materials and technique.

Barrington received his bachelor of fine arts degree in sculpture from Midwestern State University in 1980 and has been steadily welding his way onto the professional art scene. He lives and works in West Texas. His home is in Throckmorton, with his studio and gallery space located in Albany. His sculpture is drawn from a lifetime of living in rural Texas, with the people, animals and folklore all being an integral part of the tales he shares with his viewers.

The Grace Museum is open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday and from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. every Thursday. Admission is after 5 p.m. Thursday evening. For more information, call (325) 673-4587.