Although I tried out many art forms during my undergrad years I really felt most at home in the Sculpture Department, where I studied under John Hachmeister -one of the greats in American Foundry.
Foundry is one of those tricky art forms that walks the line between art and craft. The practice is derived from production metalwork and although some artists make functional pieces, I rarely made anything useful. Although the how and what can change drastically, the heart of it is creating a negative space in a mold and then filling it with molten metal. It's a messy, complicated process that almost always involves setting something on fire and I adored it.
Some of my fondest memories take place in the sub-basement studio I shared with a friend. We had little more than plywood walls and broken office chairs rescued from the dumpster, but it was a time of artistic adventure and exploration. I was learning to balance my desire for detail and control with the unpredictable nature of casting and produced some of my favorite pieces during this time.
These sculptures were all produced using the same process. First I would carve a form out of styrofoam, then I would add the petal shapes which were cut from styrofoam cups. I would take the original, add a spout, and bury it in tightly packed sand. Working with other artists, we would melt scrap aluminum and pour it into the sand mold, burning away the styrofoam and replacing it with a metal cast. This molding style is prone to blowouts and imperfections, so I never knew exactly what a piece would look like until it came out, which was part of the fun.
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