In 1971, I began my career in sculpture as a metal sculptor. I had just returned from New York City where I had worked for a small film company as a location and set photographer. A couple of years earlier, a well-known metal sculpture, Fred Wertlieb, had helped me build a “Chopper” (ala, Easy Rider), by welding my creation together. The process of welding and Fred’s own art work, so inspired me, that when I left NYC, I took-up residence in a converted chicken coop in rural Maryland and taught myself the craft of Metal sculpting.
The “art” part of sculpture came later, for I had no idea about message, style or content. At the time, all I wanted to do was create beauty and somehow, take cold, hard steel and turn it into something warm, soft and sensuous. So, of course, I chose the single hardest subject to portray these qualities: the female form.
The tools of a metal sculptor are an oxyacetylene welding setup (a welding torch connected by hoses to a gas-flow regulator attached to Oxygen and Acetylene tanks), and hand tools, like pliers, hammers, saws, metal cutters, etc. Some metal sculptors use electric or air powered machinery, but I chose to remain simple and hardly ever used grinders or presses.
Soon after I began, I made the decision to only use the torch to create my forms. By combining metals, melting and twirling them in and about the figures, only color and texture were evident in the finished piece. In less than a year I was able to create a sculpture in metal that appeared to have been cast in a foundry.
It was another couple of years before I could make the female form anywhere close to what I had envisioned. This was because I didn’t know anything about anatomy, art or style. I learned all of that at the same time I was perfecting my techniques. Throughout the thirteen years I spent as a metal sculptor, I never saw another sculpture that employed the techniques used by Fred Wertlieb and myself. In the last few years, however, I have seen some extraordinary sculptures created this way, and the sculptors were well-rounded artists in style, form and technique.
"
new adp("template06",htmlstring,"Metal Sculpture");
// *** End advanced user scripting area ***
}
if(window.attachEvent){window.attachEvent('onload', initADP);}else{if(typeof window.onload == 'function'){var preADP = window.onload;window.onload = function(){preADP();initADP();}}else{window.onload = initADP;}}
}