he’s collaborating with some furniture makers and Parish Commons on Elmwood Avenue. Once her space at the Foundry is set up properly for it, Fonzi would like to start casting fabrics in metal and incorporating glasswork into her collages. This will require some more on-the-job experimentation, as she’s yet to try casting such thin material.
If I had first met Sarah Fonzi in her street clothes, I probably never would have guessed that this petite young artist made her living as a metalworker. But last week when she gave me a tour of her new workspace at The Foundry–where she spends the majority of her waking hours–she couldn’t have looked more at home.
“I took a course while I was in college and fell in love with it. Working with metal gives you a lot of diversity–you can create so many things with welding and casting,” Fonzi said. A Buffalo native, Fonzi attended the Savannah College of Art and Design, graduating in 2008 and returning to her hometown to establish a presence in the local arts community. She spent some time working full-time for an arts organization, but for the past six months she’s been focusing more on producing her own work.
The versatility in Fonzi’s artistic skill becomes evident in the range of pieces she has produced, from delicate iron lace sculpture to larger commercial pieces like balconies and awnings. “I have always been fascinated with large outdoor sculptures and the metal casting process,” Fonzi said. “Working with metal gives you the freedom to build large and strong, but it can also be very intricate and beautiful.”
When it comes to inspiration, she often finds it in various textiles, found objects and her personal experiences. “Lace has been an overriding theme in my work for quite some time,” she said. “On one of my most extreme days, I spent the morning learning how to make lace with this older woman who was tutoring me; then I was breaking iron in the afternoon for an iron pour. I went from eating cucumber sandwiches with an 85 year-old woman to wearing leathers and being covered with soot and dirt working alongside men with sledgehammers,” she laughed.
While she took overall safety courses in college that introduced her to the fundamentals of welding and casting, much of her education over the past five years has been on the job. “I’m always learning through experience,” she said. “If someone finds out that I know how to weld and has a job for me, I have to learn how to do it. I recently made an awning that’s going to be attached to the side of a building. I had to work with an engineer to ensure it was up to code and to get building permits.”
Before making her way to The Foundry, Fonzi spent some time in Argentina as a resident artist in the Residencia Corazón program. There she found a supportive community of directors who guided her through her creative process and a sanctuary to focus on her passion. “I went there for a month and lived in a house that had a gallery attached to it, so I was literally living in the gallery,” she said. “It was a wonderful experience having no responsibility but to make artwork. I wasn’t with my family, friends or boyfriend. All I had to do was create a body of work to exhibit.”
At the end of her residency term, she held a solo opening where she had to present her work in Spanish–a new challenge for her. Fonzi’s favorite piece from that show was a white plaster installation that consisted of 30 different small modeled pieces that were cast over and over, then arranged in a lacelike pattern on a wall. That same lace theme she’s grown so fond of surfaced again in pieces she created for the Erie Art Museum and the Williamsburg Waterfront Sculpture Exhibition.
After returning home from South America, Fonzi began searching for a space to establish her metalworking shop and get started on new projects. Then she learned about The Foundry and knew she wanted to become a part of the collaborative. So they cleared out a space for her in an unused section of the building, ran some electrical wire, and a metalworker’s studio was born.
“It’s been exciting to watch how the space is growing and see the new people joining in,” Fonzi said. “It’s all about collaboration and figuring out ways to work together on new projects.”
That collaboration model aligns perfectly with Fonzi’s line of work, which often requires some extra sets of hands. “Within the casting process there’s a dozen different steps that you have to go through,” she said. “A lot of them involve teamwork, you can’t just do it by yourself. You need a large group for a pour.”
Thankfully, she has her cousin Gerald Patterson (the “G” of S&G Studios) working alongside her at The Foundry to lend a hand. According to Fonzi, the duo complement each other well, sharing the space, tools and similar interests. Their schedules alternate, giving each of them full access to the space, but they overlap enough to allow them to help one another out. “So far it’s been a great working relationship,” she said. “When we need help working on a project, we’re another set of hands.”
Patterson attended Purchase College and has worked for various toolmakers and casting companies. “He reaches out into a lot of different fields. In the past he’s mostly done jewelry making and now he wants to forge a bunch of decorative knives. He’s also a very talented sculptor,” Fonzi said. He’s currently working on a design for a waste oil burner, which will be used to melt metal and to power their forge. “I’m really excited to see what kind of machines and equipment he comes up with,” she said.
Fonzi is currently working on a series of sculptural collage, as well as a couple of commercial projects to help support her artistic endeavors. S
he’s collaborating with some furniture makers and Parish Commons on Elmwood Avenue. Once her space at the Foundry is set up properly for it, Fonzi would like to start casting fabrics in metal and incorporating glasswork into her collages. This will require some more on-the-job experimentation, as she’s yet to try casting such thin material.
he’s collaborating with some furniture makers and Parish Commons on Elmwood Avenue. Once her space at the Foundry is set up properly for it, Fonzi would like to start casting fabrics in metal and incorporating glasswork into her collages. This will require some more on-the-job experimentation, as she’s yet to try casting such thin material.
“I am extremely excited to have a studio space on the second floor of the Foundry once the build out happens,” she said. “I will have a metal shop downstairs and a clean studio for wax working, collage and fibers upstairs with the wood floors and huge windows. I am hoping to have all of my supplies and tools under one roof come spring.”
S&G Studios will be hosting a demonstration this weekend at The Foundry’s Second Saturday event (Facebook), which runs from 12 to 5 p.m. at 298 Northampton St. Stop by to see what Fonzi and Patterson have been working on. There will also be a “Swinging, Hops & Vinyl” fundraiser that night at The Foundry, starting at 7 p.m. Proceeds will go toward funding their upcoming build-out. For more information on the other creative minds who have found a home at The Foundry, check out their Facebook page and stay tuned for the next profile in our series.
Photos:
#1 “Machine Lace” sculpture in East River State Park in the Williamsburg Waterfront Sculpture Exhibition: photo by Sarah Fonzi
#2 Architect/Artist Dennis Maher, current Artist in Residence at the Albright-Knox Art Gallery, consults with Sarah Fonzi about her work on a metal rail for a sliding door: photo by The Foundry
#3 White plaster installation: photos by Residencia Corazon
#4 Gerald Patterson doing blacksmith work during a demonstration in last month’s Second Saturday at The Foundry, February 9: photos by The Foundry | Sarah Fonzi welding, and cutting metal: photos by The Foundry
Sarah Fonzi profile – photos by The Foundry