susan  madacsi
I work with steel in the traditional forging manor of a blacksmith. When steel is heated to forging temperatures around 2200 degrees it can be manipulated in the same ways as clay. In this new body of work, I have been exploring and pushing the plasticity of the material. Large thick bars are forged and cut into many smaller manageable pieces and re-assembled into forms. The vessels’ surfaces are then treated as if a palette. I apply enamel paint and use a variety of techniques to distress the surface. The result is an interpretation of a contemporary form that suggests architecture, stone, and an attempt to capture entropy. By using pigment I have found that I am able to emphasize the many textures that evolve from forging. Although steel is usually first thought of as an industrial material, I like to draw attention to our connection with it on a human level, by creating objects that reveal organic forms.