Sculpture as an Art: TAG Artists Explore New Terrain post

Summary

Touring the Bollinger Atelier with members of the Tempe Artists Guild was inspiring - sculpture is a wonderful new art terrain.

Tempe Artists Guild invites creativity in myriad forms. While a lot of us are painters, some of us have started to explore art in the third dimension. TAG artist Janet Amiri has practiced sculpture for many years and has a lot of awards to her credit. Recently, Janet taught a sculpting class in Tempe. Two of our TAG artists, Rosemarie Orlick and Debbie Ericksen, who usually paint in water media and oils respectively, ventured out of their comfort zones to learn sculpting

Rosemarie sculpted a blue heron, a subject that surfaces in her paintings often, and Debbie sculpted her dog, Peggy. They used water-based clay as their medium. Both emphasized that they were excited to learn from Janet, who was an exceptionally knowledgeable and patient teacher. Thank you, Janet, for your mentorship and for being such a wonderful part of the TAG family!

A couple of weeks ago, some of us at TAG visited the Bollinger Atelier in Tempe to learn more about getting these pieces molded and cast. It was a visit to remember. Kim and Jacob at the Atelier were kind enough to schedule our tour so that we could witness a “bronze pour.” It is a process of pouring molten bronze into a hollow mold to create a positive bronze sculpture or object. This gave us a good idea of how Rosemarie’s and Debbie’s pieces would take their final forms. It was thrilling to watch it happen, with the Atelier staff dressed in protective gear from head to toe, and literally playing with fire. While they went about this amazing process as if it were just another day at work, we were left awestruck. We watched from a safe distance, and after the pour was complete, Jacob and Chris were kind enough to explain the process a little more and patiently answer our questions. After this discussion, we took a tour of the premises.

After the tour, Kim and Jacob provided invaluable information about the Atelier as well as the sculpting process and introduced us to their other team members. They spent a lot of time with us helping us to make final decisions about the sculpting process for Debbie and Rosemarie’s pieces. Prices, material, texture, timelines were discussed.

We came back from this visit having learned a lot. Hopefully more of us will be encouraged to explore this beautiful art form.