Published: October 16, 2008 08:38 am      

Seibold displays the art of etching

Lebanon — Michael Seibold has left a trail of art from Dallas, Texas, all the way to Lebanon. And the newest spot for a display of his work is the Lebanon Municipal Building, as he is the featured artist of the month. His glass etchings and paintings will be up until Nov. 10.

“We’ve had a lot of compliments on his pieces,” said Debbie Ottinger, city clerk/treasurer.

Seibold, who has two glass etchings, one painted-glass, one stained-glass and one pen-and-ink piece currently displayed, has been creating art since he was 4 years old, he said.

“Someone asked me to draw something, and I said I’d give it a try,” he said. “It was a person with arms and legs coming out of their head. I looked at it and said, ‘Something’s not right here.’”

But at a young age, he received a compliment on his art, and that’s what he says really got him started.

“The right words can really inspire a kid to be an artist,” he said. “They all have the talent, but they just need to believe in themselves. Beethoven wasn’t born playing piano. But someone had to say to him, ‘Hey, that sounds pretty good.’”

And now, teaching his grandkids is what really inspires Seibold. He says his five grandchildren are really starting to become good artists. He’s been offered some teaching jobs in Crawfordsville, but working at ASI in Whitestown keeps his time pretty tight.

“I love to teach them, to see kids learn,” he said. “The faster they learn, the more confidence they build.”

Seibold’s medium of choice these days is glass paint, and he has one on display of three cats. He’s done a lot in glass etchings, and has two of those displayed — one of the Statue of Liberty and one of butterflies and flowers. He has a 10-by-4 foot, 900-pound plate glass etching of Da Vinci’s “The Last Supper” displayed at a Scientology church in Dallas, where he lived for 13 years. He also has three large stained-glass windows in the Masonic Temple in Dallas. And much of his smaller works are scattered along the path to Lebanon, from years of selling and giving pieces away.

As for now, Seibold just wants to try to find more time to devote to his art, because, he said, he’s too busy “trying to make a living the hard way.”