Point Breeze resident Dan Droz has always been interested in sculpture.

But he said he was more of a “closet sculptor,” toiling away in his basement while he ran his own design firm doing design-related marketing and working as an adjunct professor at the Carnegie Mellon University School of Design. After all, he needed to make a living.

Then, on the day three years ago that he turned 69, an age when a lot of people are retired or considering it, he “decided to make a change.”

Droz closed his business and decided to pursue sculpting full time.

And now, Droz is the subject of a coffee table-style book called “Behind the Fold,” a monograph on Droz’s life and work put out by Los Angeles publisher Griffith Moon.

“I’d been making sculpture in my basement, not very large pieces, but I was always interested in sculpture, though I had never sold anything or shown anything,” said Droz, a Brookline native who has lived in several Pittsburgh neighborhoods. “A friend of mine had seen some of these and said, ‘You should show these to some people.’”

It’s turned out to be a very fortuitous decision — despite the fact that it coincided with the start of the pandemic.

“One of the silver linings of covid was that a lot of the interaction with sculptors and other artists (across the world) I would have had to go to conferences to have were now available through Zoom,” Droz said. “So, I was able, in a very short period of time, to connect with a lot of people that I might not otherwise have had the opportunity to. It was a good and active period for me.”

Droz has since gained a national reputation after creating innovative fabrication methods.

Among his pioneering efforts, Droz invented a new method for creating glass sculpture that allows glass to be folded and formed while in a kiln.

He has also created ways of turning large metal sheets into complex forms without welding, using a technique of folding metal, as if it were paper.

Droz’s innovations in 3D printing have allowed him to create sculpture that can be cast directly in glass and bronze.

Since 2019, Droz’s work has been featured in over 40 solo and juried exhibitions throughout the U.S. His work has also been shown at the Westmoreland Museum of American Art and Pittsburgh International Airport.

Some of Droz’s large scale pieces are familiar to Pittsburghers even though they might not know his name. They include a 12-foot blue sculpture called “The Gathering” at the entrance to the Three Rivers Heritage Trail at 15th Street and Waterfront Place in the Strip District.

He’s very excited to be the subject of a book.

“It’s one of those things that you just can’t anticipate.”

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