About this project
It’s like a botany I have in my head….
Sometimes I call my sculptures “cocoons”, “flowers”, “mushrooms” and “branches,” though really, they are all and none of these things. My pieces do not replicate, but reference organic forms, allowing me to abstract shapes I appreciate in the natural world in order to communicate the joy that they inspire in me; the feelings they evoke put into form. It’s my own kind of botany, with its references known and unknown.
I’ve been drawing many of the forms I create in sculpture since long before I knew how to use a torch. But it wasn’t until I met my teacher, Greg Wilbur, in 2005, that I learned to use metal to truly express myself and these forms three dimensionally. I’ve been playing with these shapes and concepts ever since, constantly discovering new ways to bring them to life, and interact with each other and their surroundings. The more I explore them and the materials, the more these shapes take on a life of their own.
If you build it…..
After 12 years of living inside of my jewelry and sculpture, exploring techniques of metalsmithing, I feel that it’s my time as an artist to share the unique voice and skill I have been developing with a larger audience. I want an opportunity to inspire.
I have the honor of being the showcased artist for a month-long exhibit at Dialect Gallery in the heart of the gallery district in downtown Los Angeles in October of 2011. The monthly LA Artwalk has transformed from a shmoozy gallery crawl into a night of revelry and exploration, with sidewalks overflowing with every type of Los Angelean. Dialect Gallery is giving me an opening reception on one of those busy Artwalk evenings. This affords me the opportunity to show my work as a series, as opposed to single pieces, allowing me to fully communicate my aesthetic voice. My work will be seen by more people than ever before, and in Los Angeles, with its thriving entertainment industry and healthy appetite for talent and art, I believe this opportunity can trigger a major shift in my artistic career.
Presentation, presentation, presentation.
The key to this particular series/project is presentation. Apart from some of my site-specific sculptural installations ( see some of them here, here, here, and here ), my sculptures have previously crawled across walls and splayed themselves on tables. They’ve been caught in cracks and bloomed from vases. They could be turned upside down and sideways. But their versatility, in the end, seemed to be their flaw. For the Dialect show, I am trapping these metallic organisms, creating diorama worlds for them to live within, to offer viewers a fixed window through which to view the pieces. Shadowboxes, frames and pedestals that I fabricate out of steel, found objects and embedded LED lights will give my lissome sculptural creatures the home and purpose they need. Every part of the dioramas will be designed as part of the artwork. The result will be self-contained worlds of art that enhance their own qualities of form, color and material.
These pieces will be much easier for people to place, both conceptually and physically, than those I have created before. Seeing something beautiful almost always evokes a reaction, but most people need beauty to have an ascertainable purpose or placement in their lives, especially if it’s semi-abstract artwork. These pieces are all designed to be put on a wall or pedestal, or to be worn on the body. The pieces may be abstract, but their purpose is not.
I presently have 9 pieces for this series, both wall-hanging and free standing, and time and money permitting, there will be more. Almost every piece is made up of multiple hammered pieces within, supported by steel work. Each involves several kinds of metalsmithing processes and finishing work.
Along with the sculpture series, I will display couture jewelry and sculpture-to-wear that is in conversation with the main sculpture series on display.
After working as a jeweler and finding the industry side of the fashion world very unsatisfying, I am excited for this opportunity to have my one-of-a-kind pieces seen and collected. In Los Angeles, it only takes one or two of the right people wearing or displaying your pieces in photos shoots to change your career forever. The opportunity to show my couture pieces has rejuvenated my interest in jewelry and my faith in artistic success without mass production in other countries. I want to show the broad scope of my work while still tying it all together, as well as offer multiple opportunities for people to connect with the aesthetic. If someone does not have a place for a larger sculpture, they may find that a piece of my jewelry evokes the same natural elements they appreciate in the sculpture. Or vice versa.
Process (a.k.a the devil/angel is in the details)
In an age of machines, “raising” metal is a technique of the past. For centuries, craftsman used the technique to create vessels and utensils, heating non-ferrous (brass, bronze, copper, silver) sheet metal until malleable and then cooling it to use hammers and stakes to stretch, bend and compress the metal into complex and hollow forms.
After studying with a master of the technique (http://www.opb.org/programs/artbeat/segments/view/642 ) for two years, I continued on my own for the following six, using raising to create organic sculptural forms that reference roots, plants, cocoons and chrysalises. I’ve so love exploring how an innately hard and tough material like metal can be made to look soft, alive, kaleidoscopic.
Why I need Money for this
Everything I need in order to work metal—the tools, the materials, and the physical space—is very expensive. Even the small stuff like saw blades and buffing compound starts to add up on a project this scale, and the cost of metal is regularly increasing.
- Studio Rental at Big Art Labs (Working with metal requires lots of space for tables, equipment, and a place to make lots of noise.)
- Tools (Steel work requires its own set of tools, from the welding mask to the flap disc. Raising and soldering non-ferrous metal demands a completely different set of tools. General shop tools, tools for finishing work and coloration (patination), for surface cleaning and buffing, all of which are different for steel vs. non-ferrous metals.)
- Materials (Sheet bronze, copper, brass, steel, patinas and surface treatments, welding wire, acetylene gas used for annealing hammered metal, argon/co2 for welding sheet steel, various connection pieces and hardware, both fabricated and purchased directly.)
- Time (8-12 hr days in the studio, 6-7 days a week means I cannot support myself with another job.)
For me to complete this series with the detail and quality it demands, I must become a full-time sculptor and stop taking jobs that pull me away from the studio. The funds raised through this Kickstarter campaign are for the express purpose of allowing me to continue creating this work for the gallery showing, which is why it includes my time (partial cost of living). It will not completely cover my living expenses but I will make this amount work for me. If I raise additional funds, those will also go towards more work for this show or to tools that will help me work more in the future, and towards the costs of making the rewards for each donation.
Thank you for your time and consideration. If you support my endeavor, please forward it to everyone you think would feel similarly. Thank you for supporting me in bringing my aesthetic vision to life, and sharing it more people than ever before.
FAQ
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Funding Successful
This project successfully raised its funding goal on August 20, 2011.
Pledge $15 or more Pledge $15 or more
Donors at this level receive a 5”x7” photographic print of a sculptures and a hand-written thank you card. (Prints and cards will be mailed within 3 weeks of the funding goal being achieved.)
Pledge $30 or more Pledge $30 or more
Donors at this level receive three 5”x7” photographic prints of the sculptures and a hand-written thank you card. (Prints and cards will be mailed within 3 weeks of the funding goal being achieved.)
Pledge $100 or more Pledge $100 or more
Donors at this level receive a framed 6”x11” photographic print of one of the sculptures, two 5”x7” photographic prints, and hand-written thank you card. (Prints and cards will be mailed within 3 weeks of the funding goal being achieved.)
Pledge $250 or more Pledge $250 or more
Donors at this level receive a hammered mini mushroom cluster sculpture magnet made by the artist, three 5”x7” photographic prints of the sculptures, and hand-written thank you card. (Prints and cards will be sent within 3 weeks of the funding goal being achieved. All other rewards will be sent within 5 weeks of the opening reception of the Dialect Gallery exhibit on October 6, 2011.)
Pledge $700 or more Pledge $700 or more
Donors at this level can choose between two rewards. Option 1: A personal art tour, starting with a meeting at Dialect Gallery to tour and discuss the artwork, and moving to my Downtown Los Angeles Studio to see where the work is created, and watch demos of the work in process, and an hour and a half lesson on basic technique in metal if you so choose. In addition, you will be given a 6”x11” photographic print of one of the sculptures, and hand-written thank you card. OR A bouquet of hammered “mushrooms” and “florets” in copper and brass to add to floral arrangements or stand alone as their own bouquets, a 6”x11” photographic print of the sculptures in the series, and hand-written thank you card. Donor’s name will be listed on a gratitude page of the Artist’s website as a donor. (Prints and cards will be sent within 3 weeks of the funding goal being achieved. Art tour schedule will be planned for mid or late October, to be discussed shortly after funding goal is achieved. Alternately, the sculpture reward will be sent within 6 weeks of the opening reception of the Dialect Gallery exhibit on October 6, 2011.)
Pledge $1,500 or more Pledge $1,500 or more
Donors at this level will receive a 12”x12” wall-hanging sculpture in steel and raised copper. OR They can also choose an option of three 3-hour private metalsmithing classes in my Downtown Los Angeles Studio for themselves or someone they love. Add to that a framed 6”x11” photographic print of the sculptures, and hand-written thank you card. Donor’s name will be listed on a gratitude page of the Artist’s website as a donor. (Prints and cards will be sent within 3 weeks of the funding goal being achieved. Class schedule will be planned with donor in early November. Alternately, the sculpture reward will be sent within 10 weeks of the opening reception of the Dialect Gallery exhibit on October 6, 2011.)
Pledge $3,000 or more Pledge $3,000 or more
YOU ARE AN ANGEL! Donors at this level will be asked to choose a style of sculpture or jewelry from my portfolio that they enjoy, and will be made a custom piece. That piece will be photographed and displayed prominently, with the Donors name, on a section of the Artist’s website. They will also be given a 6”x11” photographic print of the sculptures, and hand-written thank you card, and name will be listed on a gratitude page of the Artist’s website as a donor. (Prints and cards will be sent within 3 weeks of the funding goal being achieved. Commissioned pieces will be discussed and sketched within 6 weeks, and completed within 10 weeks of the opening reception of the Dialect Gallery exhibit on October 6, 2011.)
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“All of my artwork is dedicated to creating a visual language out of my reverence for growth, the wisdom of Nature’s structures and forms, and the energy that flows in between. I write into every molecule of my artwork a translation of joy that the natural world continuously inspires within me.”
Shira Loa was born in Amherst, MA, attended Massachusetts College of Art in Boston, and received her BFA from the University of Michigan. She did post-graduate apprenticeships with master metalsmiths Greg Wilbur and Benjamin Neubauer for several years in Portland, OR, and received her Jewelry Technician Certificate from Revere Academy while living in San Francisco. She currently lives in Los Angeles, and has a studio at the Big Art Labs in downtown LA.
