Blue Bird Migration: Sing, Sing your song

6’ 1” x 1’ 10” x 4’ 6”

Cast iron, paint

2016

2016 Hot Metal Artist

Artist Statement

My work investigates sculpture and performance. The work combines fabricated steel, cast bronze, aluminum and iron elements with silk, wood, beeswax and fire.

I work intuitively, creating elements and collecting parts that reflect what and how I see and respond to my surroundings. Each piece is the result of multiple layers of decision-making, recording gestures, memories and movements. The work is inspired by nature’s organic forms, structures and hybrids of these forms. I blur the space between urban and natural landscapes. My family have always been makers, I join them as a maker of objects.

In my recent experiments I use the iron casting process to create gestural works. Iron is poured as the artist, me creates movement and action, the iron dances across the paper and silk resulting in a pyro- print. “Poetic and graceful, the process is intuitive and intimate much like my cast and fabricated pieces. These experimental investigations are fluid like a dance of the body and an extension of my hands.”

I am internationally recognized for my cast metal works and performances. My work can be seen in England, France, China, Latvia and Italy, New York and MN.  I maintain a studio in Montana and also work in Oakland CA.

Cynthia Handel

Born: Lancaster, PA, USA, 1956

Resides: Oakland, CA, USA

Education

MFA, San Jose State University, 1989