A Copper Alliance Member
Copper in the Arts
Issue #10: February '08 - Cont'd
Rochelle Toner: Exploring the Organic Form Through Printmaking
Printmaker Rochelle Toner in her studio
Photograph by Paul David
She taught at the prestigious Temple University Tyler School of Art in Philadelphia for thirty years, the last thirteen of which she also served as the Dean. In the late seventies, Rochelle spent three years teaching in Rome at Temple University Abroad, just north of the Piazza del Popolo. Her work has appeared in many selected invitational and solo exhibitions, and has been exhibited in more than 100 competitive exhibitions in the USA and Europe. She has participated in a number of nationally curated, limited-edition portfolios, and has chaired and served on the panel of numerous visiting artist workshops and symposia. Rochelle's work is represented in a number of permanent public collections, including The Philadelphia Museum of Art. She's been the recipient of many awards and grants, and served on boards and juries. Her Academic Appointments, besides the Tyler School of Art/Temple University, was as instructor at the University of Illinois, (Urbana), and instructor at Clark College (Dubuque).
"I never desired to do anything else except be an artist," she explains. "I didn't even know what it meant, nor did I realize that my father was a folk artist. I didn't have much conception of either of those things, so in my mind being an artist meant being an art teacher. My first undergraduate degree was in Art and Art Education from the University of Northern Iowa (Cedar Falls), and then I taught for four years in the public school system in Dubuque (IA). I attended graduate school at the University of Illinois (Champagne, Ill) and that's where my interest in copper plate etching started."
Rochelle began focusing on copper plate etching in 1966, but had always been interested in forms derived from nature. In recent years, the drawings and prints that she has made have the collective title; Nature, Pleasure, and Innuendo. She states that she is fascinated by the way abstraction evolves from a process of observing, distilling and internalizing information in a synthesis of conscious and subconscious interactions.
Toner's uses copper plates to create intaglio prints
Photograph by Paul David
Rochelle purchases her copper from an art supply company and uses 16-gauge industrial grade copper because she etches very deeply. The prints and plates become very beautiful in themselves. She feels that people are sometimes more interested in the plates than in the prints because they're very sculptural and relief-like with textured surfaces etched deeply into the plates. Rochelle says that copper itself is a beautiful material that is very responsive to hand work and the effects of the natural environment.
"When the copper plate is inked, the ink is smeared across the surface of the plate and worked into all the texture and lines with a dauber, an instrument that forces the ink into the lines and textures," she explains. "Then, the ink is scraped off with a chip of cardboard and the plate is wiped with a tarlatan, starched cheese cloth. The ink is released from the plate, depending on how rough or smooth it is, so the rougher the plate the more textural, and the more ink it holds. Consequently, the darker the tone in print. The smoother the plate is, the more ink is released and the tone is lighter. A range of values is possible from rich blacks to crisp whites, with a wide variety of grays in-between."
Toner is a firm believer that art is its own reward.
"I love working and naturally want people to like my work, but I like it for myself for its self-rewarding qualities," she says. "It makes me happy when I go to my studio."
Resources:
For more information and availability, visit Rochelle Toner's Web Site,
or call the Dolan/Maxwell Gallery at (215) 732-7787.
Video of Rochelle Toner demonstrating her copper etching technique.
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Video of Rochelle Toner demonstrating her copper etching technique.
Exploring Life Rhythms Through Sculpture
Sculptor David Hostetler
Photograph provided by Sarah S. Edmonds
"My life centers around artful choices, the life rhythms, shapes and spaces and their infinite combinations," says Hostetler, who splits his time between Athens, Georgia and Nantucket, Massachusetts, where he and his wife Susan own an art gallery. "The coming together of art, rhythm, forms and space can be magic. The quest for this magic gives my life purpose and provides my joy of being."
Each sculpture is fully realized when one sees the female forms that Hostetler carves and emotively casts, capturing the space around them when installed in sculptural parks and gallery spaces. His work has the power to fill a room with the presence of nature and can equally augment the natural world with a sense of powerful, yet caring order.
Hostetler's has devoted his life work to the subject of women. His sculptures honor the female form and pay homage to the physical beauty and mythical archetypes of women from pre-history to the present. This reoccurring female figure has similarities in her reincarnations, but changes depending on the material used, or content desired. Hostetler's work has an angular seductress in hard edge metal, and a soulful spirit in hand carved and cast bronze.
Throughout his 55 years of work, this prolific artist explores the female figure as subject, form and content. A singular exploration that Hostetler's particular passion has not exhausted but instead, has magnified. His figures reoccur as symbols not only of strength, and femaleness, but also of totality. She is unified, whole and in her stunning, and often soothing symmetry Hostetler's women are brazen but not scalding, she is often an energy complete enough to embody both male and female.
"The goddess is a symbol of empowerment for woman that men will not resent or fear for it is a metaphor for earth as a living organism, an archetype for a balanced feminine consciousness that encompasses men and women as equals," Hostetler says of his reworking of the female form. "Maybe this is a search for the strength of women in all of us."
This search has taken David through varied artistic forms throughout the last half-century. Table top works in sleek Glasurit car enamel, larger than life sized totems in wood, bronze and artful combinations of both, architectural explorations and prints and paintings further exploring the female form and various shades of her historic archetypes.
Hostetler resides and works, with his wife, Susan Crehan Hostetler, on a 40-acre farm outside Athens, Ohio and summers in Nantucket, Massachusetts where the couple own and operate a gallery. He is also professor emeritus from Ohio University. In addition to his teaching career, Hostetler has built a national reputation with his work. His work can be seen in the collection of The Museum of Fine Arts Boston, The Milwaukee Museum and in public sculpture the Grounds for Sculpture in Hamilton, New Jersey, and most recently in an installation at the Trump International Hotel and Tower in New York City.
Resources:
For sales and exhibition inquiries, contact Gallery Director, Susan Crehan Hostetler.
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Copper in the Arts: EVENTS
- Palm Beach Jewelry, Art, and Antique Show
Feb 15, '13 - Feb 18, '13 - Native Expressions: Dave McGary’s Bronze Realism
Mar 7, '13 - Jun 30, '13 - Evolving Character Head Demonstration with John Coleman
Mar 9, '13 - Mar 9, '13 - More Upcoming Events...
Copper in the Arts: HISTORY
Solving the Statue of Liberty Copper Mystery
Marino estimates the Statue of Liberty
contains 100 tons of copper
Photograph by Tim Alderson
Like most women, it deals with her weight. (Her copper weight to be exact!) There have been a plethora of numbers thrown around throughout the years about her copper weight, and they run the gamut. So, what's the real story about her true weight? And, why can't anyone figure it out? Of course, if she were real she'd be happy to tell us, if, unlike most women, she revealed her copper weight, but history has shown that she's extremely adept at hiding the fact.
According to our own Copper Development Association, the copper content of the lady is 179,000 pounds, with copper that came from the Visnes copper mines on Karmoy Island near Stavanger, Norway, and created by French artisans. According to the National Parks Service, our grand dame only has approximately 62,000 pounds of copper. Other documented information has our lady draped in 200,000 pounds of pure copper hung on a framework of steel that was originally puddle iron, except for the magnificent flame, which is coated with gold leaf. Emporis.com, a site that has a wonderful description of her most vital facts, states that "the external skin is sculpted from around three hundred 0.2 centimeter (0.09 thick), hand-hammered copper plates which are fixed to an internal diagonally braced iron frame. The copper skin weighs around 92 tons."
So, who is correct?
For answers, we went to Barry Marino, Librarian of the Ellis Island Library, who was happy to set the record straight.
"About 200,000 pounds, or 100 tons, of copper was used in the construction of the Statue of Liberty," he explains. "Discrepancies exist because this amount was announced in the 1880s from French sources. At that time there were some inaccuracies in providing the exact amount because it was a huge project and, of course, they obtained lots of copper. Naturally, some was used in the final work and some wasn't used until years later when it was restored in the 1980s. American and French engineers had a different estimate. However, the approximately 200,000 pounds is an estimate based on engineering calculations. There's really not an absolutely correct number, because you can't weigh the statue now."
Copper in the Arts: NEWS
Ingrid Donat and Hervé Wahlen bronze and copper exhibits on view at New York's Barry Friedman Gallery - February 21, 2008
Hervé Wahlen's Dinanderie
Photograph courtesy of Barry Friedman, Ltd.
Donat's aesthetic combines tribal, classical, and Modern sources, recalling the stylistic influences of colonial Africa, Central and South America, and Oceania on French artists and designers of the 1920s and 1930s. Visible too, are the influences of mentors Sylvia Berndt, a sculptor and companion of André Arbus, and Diego Giacometti. Donat, however, has her own distinctive artistic vocabulary.
"I draw inspiration from the everyday," said Donat. "This inspiration can be naturalistic, mechanistic, industrial, or cultural. I am inspired by specific surfaces: reptile skin, Samurai armor, tattoos, etc. My work represents a spiritual evolution, transforming an "ordinary" object into something more artistic, sophisticated, and refined."
Donat's new furniture pieces are heavily textured and sensuously tactile. The dark bronze surface of Commode Primitive (2007) recalls a rough, scaly reptilian skin, with rectangular areas of small organically shaped squares highlighting its two deep drawers. The impression of a skin is enhanced by the slight upward curve at the base of each rectangle, creating built-in handles.
The corporeity of Donat's work reflects her background as a sculptor. Initially working in clay, she began to explore bronze after meeting Sylvia Berndt. At first Donat sculpted wax figures to cast, leaving evidence of her hand in the seemingly malleable surface of the finished pieces. It was not until befriending Diego Giacometti in 1980 that she began to design furniture. Now, she sees herself as "a sculptor who integrates art into everyday life, or everyday life into art." Donat personally engraves each piece; sometimes adding painted upholstery, parchment, or burned wood by hand in the finishing process.
Wahlen's exhibition demonstrates her mastery with the rare and unusual art of dinanderie, the manual shaping of copper metal sheeting and its subsequent decorative processes, including hammering, shaping, soldering and welding, cutting and patination. The resulting organically shaped objects are both sensuous and enigmatic.
Wahlen explores issues of contrast and balance. Smooth exterior surfaces in deep, rich patinas are juxtaposed with highly textured interiors of gold leaf. The reflective nature of the interior draws the viewer's eye to the light within, while a copper skin stretched above a predetermined void creates tension.
Most of the pieces have a seemingly precarious stance; an illusion created by Wahlen's careful use of metal ball bearings to provide weight and counterbalance. The viewer is encouraged to manipulate and handle the works, creating a sense of discovery and mystery. Secret compartments, doors, and lids reveal themselves through manual exploration. The artist explains, "The idea of balance accentuates the mystery of the work. The counterweights allow the handling of the pieces and the ability to move them slightly. In the same spirit as my work, my workshop is a house with an open door onto the world and through my craft I am allowed to seek its refuge, or to regroup."
Resources:
Barry Friedman, Ltd., 515 West 26th St., New York, NY, (212) 239-8600
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