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Faculty Focus - Felix Torres |
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by Thea Daniels
The Art of Woodcarving & Sculpting w/ Felix Torres
May 10th - June 28th
Thursdays, 6-10pm
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On the floor of the Sierra Maestre mountainous forests, Cuban sculptor, Felix Torres, would find raw material for his next piece. Downed by hurricanes, Guyacan, Jigui, and Ebano Carbonero wood lay like ebony, dense and heavy, rich in form, and plentiful enough that, in seven years of caring every day, he never cut a tree. He often felt nature had designed and left the form; he was just putting the finishing touches, releasing the animal or symbol within. Falling for and marrying a Bay Area native, led him to relocate four years ago to the East Bay. Yet part of his heart and part of his future remain on his family land where a budding eco-artist community, Ecolonia Nuevo Mundo, continues to develop.
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Faculty Focus - Mary White |
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Tuesday, 06 December 2011 11:50 |
by Thea Daniels
How can art illuminate what science cannot?
Mary installing monument in Boulder Creek, Colorado.
In July of this year, The Crucible’s Glass Department Co-Head, Mary White, concluded an ambitious eco-artistic project six years in the making. Five thousand pounds of foundation concrete, stone, and 144 panels of drilled glass now rise 18 spired feet alongside a gushing Boulder Creek in Colorado. At night it glows but in the day it chills, as one glances up and takes in the significance of the 100 and 500 year flood water levels of the Creek that as recently as 1976 killed 140 people and caused thirty million dollars in property damage. The piece moves people, far more potently than words or statistics, to conceptualize the towering water levels when they will have only 45 minutes to leave before flood conditions prevail.
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Faculty Focus – Nick DiPhillipo |
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Friday, 28 October 2011 13:54 |
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by Jennifer Zahrt
Nick DiPhillipo got his start in metal accidentally. Thirty-five years ago, he travelled to Arcosanti, an experimental town in the high desert of Arizona, north of Phoenix. While there, he joined the artisans casting metal wind chimes and bells, and that kicked off his career as a craftsman and artist. He now works as a professional metal caster, and he often builds his own equipment and tools. Nick got involved with The Crucible shortly after it opened by taking classes and eventually teaching in the foundry. He has also played an integral role in creating the foundry, including building the kiln and a couple of furnaces.
His background as an industrial craftsman helps focus his teaching style on imparting skills and tools. He encourages his students to pursue their own work, and he makes sure they learn how to do that work safely and well. He created the Foundry Fundamentals course, which gives students a toolbox of skills needed to create projects successfully in the foundry. He also teaches a bell-making course, which dovetails with his current interest in creating sound sculpture.
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Industrial Artist and New Stanford Freshman, Beatriz Cuevas |
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Tuesday, 30 August 2011 11:51 |
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Right now we have our next generation of industrial artists heading back to school. We recently had a chance to catch up with one of our students Beatriz Cuevas and talk to her about how her industrial arts experience helped her get into Stanford University.
Crucible: Hi Beatriz, can you tell folks a bit about how you got started at The Crucible?
Beatriz: Yeah, sure. I've been at The Crucible since I was 13, when I was in the 8th grade. I got involved with The Crucible because my art and jewelry teacher Ms. Wasserman, suggested that I take a class at The Crucible, so I applied, and I was accepted into the summer program.
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Faculty Focus – Chris Neimer |
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Monday, 01 August 2011 15:08 |
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by Jennifer Zahrt
During a class fieldtrip to Greenfield Village & Henry Ford Museum in Detroit, the ten-year-old Chris Niemer spied a blacksmith smacking on metal with a hammer, and he knew right then that he wanted to become a blacksmith. He didn't get to start working with metal until his early 20s when he came to California and got involved with the California Blacksmith Association. Now, Chris teaches courses in blacksmithing in The Crucible's smithy.
A good part of Chris's art is functional, but he often implements organic shapes. He's done railings, gates, and fences that all have an artistic foundation. He created this particular railing early on in his career, and it's still one of his favorite pieces.
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