I was recently walking in downtown Charleston and came across this “blast from the past”. This was my first piece of metal sculpture that I worked on with dad.  The year was 1979 and I was thirteen years old. He was commissioned by the Medical University of South Carolina to build a sculpture that would fit in with their logo and family theme. I have vivid memories of the experience. We began by brainstorming ideas and then building maquettes. Once we decided on a model I took a black and white photograph and processed the negative. I then put the negative into a slide projector so we could project the image onto large sheets of kraft paper to use for the templates. Corten steel was the material of choice for its anti corrosive properties. Finally we put fire to the metal and started cutting and grinding the steel. Dad would use a tree with a crotch in it for making the large bends and then a blacksmith vise for the rest of the forming. The base was made from forming sheet copper and filling it with concrete.  We then installed the finished piece to the fanfare of the six o’clock news.

Needless to say I was mesmerized by the process. I was paid $200 dollars for my efforts and I bought a black and white (Beseler 23CII) enlarger with it. Its funny how things work out that almost 30 years later I am doing the same thing by making metal sculpture and funneling the profits into photographic equipment!