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.

The sculpture is part community education and wholly a monument, a product of a partnership with scientists, the designer, the Boulder artist Christian Muller, Elizabeth Black, Marshall French, admirers, friends, family, of Gilbert White.  Mary’s geography professor father was known as “The father of floodplain management” and won numerous honor and scientific prizes before passing away in 2006.  The City of Boulder agreed a plaque in his honor would not honor his contributions adequately.  Mary got to do what she loves best, which is to work collaboratively to develop a piece deeply connected to her and to issues of the environment.

Mary working on the Boulder Creek monument.

Mary was meant to be a scientist.  She grew up in a Quaker family of scientists and thought she’d be a sociologist. But by the time she was in her early teens, she was drawing portraits, winning art prizes, and she realized she was at her best with the creative process of object making. By 19, she was on Park Avenue South, in NYC, working as a waitress at Max’s Kansas City serving the likes of Andy Warhol and John Chamberlain and knew she had found her milieu.  Although she began her formal education at Earlham in Indiana, Viola Frey’s work compelled her to move west where she ultimately got her BA and MFA at the California College of the Arts. 
She headed up San Jose State University’s Glass Program from 1985 to 2005 and upon retiring, went on a Fulbright to Ireland. There she co-taught a seminar on The Landscapes of Aesthetics and Design, with 19 students utilizing glass, ceramic and textile, with the aim of sharpening their critical thinking on art.

Teacher, Artist, Collaborator, Fulbright Scholar, Symposium sponsor, Environmentalist – There are many sides to Mary White.  Much of her work connects to earthy roots and is often done with others and out of found objects. Solar powered glass birdbaths dot her Berkeley backyard, a glass watering hole emerges from the landscape

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.

When he’s not in the foundry, Nick enjoys applying what he knows about his craft in unusual settings, such as pouring metal at night or in diverse environmental situations. The theatrical side of The Crucible also gives him a platform to experiment with his craft. Nick has played bit parts in productions that include live foundry pours. In Romeo and Juliet he played Friar Lawrence, in Firebird he played one of the flaming “Foundry Ents,” and in Dracul he poured metal from the second story to the first story into a small container with a small amount of flash powder. The amount of control it takes to pull something like that off is pretty incredible. Overall, it’s safe to say that Nick’s joy in playing with metal is infectious.

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.

The first class I took at The Crucible was blacksmithing. Honestly, I didn’t even know what blacksmithing was; I’d never been exposed to industrial art before. I remember I was really afraid in the beginning of the class because the small pieces of metal from hammering the hot metal rod were hitting my skin and it burned a little. I was so afraid, but after the first day, I got more comfortable with the hammer, the metal and the fire. I’ve also taken glass flameworking, jewelry, TIG welding, and the Art Bike class. Each class has been really fun. I especially loved welding and working with glass.

Crucible: What are some of the different projects besides classes that you have participated in?
Beatriz: One of the projects I was involved in was making a pedal-powered bike organ. The Crucible was going to be featured on Design Squad Nation, a show that would air nationwide on PBS. They gave me the opportunity to be the student that would represent The Crucible. During the show, I helped build a bike with two engineers and worked on the welding of the frame that would hold the organ. In the end, I got to present the bike at the Block Party at my school where my friends, family, and teachers saw my work. Everyone was very proud and excited for me.

I also participated in the Fuego! Internship program. Last year, I interned in the glass flameworking class. It was really fun because I got to help other students become better artisans while bettering my art skills in the glass medium. I made sure the class materials were set in the mornings, took students to break, and monitored the students during lunch activities. I learned how to better communicate with young people, and this skill really helped me this year, since I am an intern again. This year I’m an intern, but with a spin. I’m helping the current interns be interns. I lead some of the icebreaker and bonding activities everyday during our meetings. I’m working on improving my speaking skills in front of a group of people, which will help

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.

These days, Chris spends most of his creative time making machines, structures for machines, and tools for the smithy. The major project Chris has resolved to create this year is an induction heater, which is an electrical heat source for heating metal. It works by passing magnetic waves through the metal and exciting the atoms to get it hot.

In class he’s known for telling his students to “Swing the hammer!” This mantra sums up his approach to teaching in the smithy. After he’s presented a thorough demo and communicated his organized layout for what he expects students to achieve, he gives them the freedom to make mistakes. He’ll then step in and help students solve the mistakes. This teaches them through direct experience one of the fundamental aspects of being a blacksmith: problem solving. Blacksmiths, who often have a limited amount of tools and resources, have to figure out how to accomplish their goals with the tools, resources, and skills at hand.

The most prominent thing that Chris sees students getting out of the smithy is a tactile understanding of physical properties and geometry and an appreciation for how things are made. The results of a wrong hammer blow are very graphic. Learning how to work with metal teaches students how to understand angles, positioning, and force and how that is applied to material. Students also gain a new perspective on metalwork and walk away with being able to see the difference between machine-made and handmade. As Chris put it, “when things are exactly alike, you know a machine made it. When things have variance, you know that a human hand was involved.”

Chris credits The Crucible with giving him the greatest source of unrestrained creativity in his artistic work. He’s constantly amazed by all the creative people and projects happening at The Crucible, and he’s excited that he’s been given the chance to build up the smithy into one of the Bay Area’s best places to swing hammers!