Sculpting with Fire
The small brick building that sits behind Mason Library usually looks quite innocuous. But pass by its windows at the right time of day and you鈥檒l see sparks flying and smell molten metal as the sculpture class gets down to business, using extreme heat to create works of art.
Associate Professor Lynn Richardson teaches Sculpture I at Keene State. Following a few introductory projects, she gets right down to teaching her classes the art of welding as part of their sculpting repertoire. For students, the idea can be intimidating. 鈥淭hey get very scared when it starts coming up,鈥� says Richardson, who received the 2015 Faculty Distinction in Research and Scholarship Award. 鈥淎nd half of them say, 鈥業 do not want to weld; I have no interest in welding. It鈥檚 scary and I don鈥檛 want to do it.鈥�
The fear of welding is well placed, as the process includes using machinery that heats to an excess of 3,000 degrees Celsius and requires a substantial amount of protective equipment to operate safely.
鈥淭he fear isn鈥檛 so much getting burned. It has a loud sound to it and sparks and smoke that happen, so I think everybody is timid about that. But as soon as they realize that the heat is centralized in that one little area that you鈥檙e welding, it鈥檚 not so scary. It鈥檚 really hard to burn yourself. Everybody is wearing full safety equipment, big leather gloves, proper footwear,鈥� says Richardson, describing her students鈥� transition from fear to excitement. 鈥淚t鈥檚 a great part of the day, to see them all of a sudden turn around and be like, 鈥楾his is my favorite thing in the whole world.鈥欌��
And with the excitement and new skills comes the powerful realization that fabricating or sculpting anything is possible. 鈥淚 teach my first-year students to weld, and it tends to be a lot more women than men,鈥� she says. 鈥淎bout two semesters ago, one of the students was welding and she just looked at me and said, 鈥業 feel so empowered now!鈥欌��
Richardson understands the feeling.
鈥淲hen I say it鈥檚 empowering, it鈥檚 not just about the gender role and having this skill that a male has, but when I look around wherever I am, everything is constructed in our environment 鈥� and that鈥檚 probably why I鈥檓 a sculptor, because the world I see is in three dimensions. As soon as you learn to weld, how to chop steel, and how to join things, you can essentially build anything that you want,鈥� she says. 鈥淔or our students, I think all of these things around us are mysterious, but we鈥檝e broken it down and stripped the mystery away, and they can start constructing from the ground up.鈥�
Learning something new is always difficult, and using fire to create artwork takes nerves of steel, but Richardson removes that barrier to entry with her sculpture class.
A working artist herself, she鈥檚 not hard to spot. Just keep an eye out for the professor with the slightly singed helmet-head hanging out at the sculpture studio behind the library. 鈥淭he top of my hair is usually incredibly fuzzy from wearing the welding helmets and from the flying embers,鈥� she says.