IIW welded art exhibition, 2021

HILARY CLARKE COLE (Canada)

Hilary Clark Cole is a Canadian sculptor, working mainly in welded steel, and in limited edition cast bronzes. Her one-of-a-kind metal sculptures can be very small or very large, rough or smooth, monochromatic or colourful. She often incorporates copper or brass. The sculptures can range in subject matter from a tiny sculpture of a flower, where the curve of the leaf makes one think it is real, to a 10” – 15”

bronze or steel figure that seems human in its detail and beauty, to the welded fantasy faces that command the wall, to a study of a crow, steely-natured, with blue-black torch coloured wings, to a life-size study of a Northern Ontario Bull Moose, chunks of weathered steel speaking of power and wild nature. Hilary is frequently asked about the source of her inspiration. She often cannot find a satisfactory way to explain where her ideas come from, because she thinks in metal pictures, not in words. A sculpture becomes fully formed, engineered and completed in her head; a complicated network of possibilities, just waiting to be resolved in the third dimension. These images in her artist’s brain come from the many layers of life experience, heritage, training, study, trial and error, emotional response, a desire to communicate, and a passionate love of metal All Hilary needs are time and materials to make the sculptural concepts real in the world, so that others can experience them, and hopefully understand. “The Artist’s Brain” is her deeply personal reply to the question “Where do you get your ideas?”

Contact info Website: www.hilaryclarkcole.com • E-mail: hcc@vianet.ca • Arts Organization Webpage: www.muskokaartsandcrafts.com

Exhibit “THE ARTIST’S BRAIN” This wall sculpture is a combination of several of Hilary’s techniques, using an oxy-acetylene torch, mild steel sheet and rod and copper. It is a hand-built process that allows her to achieve a delicate and eloquent form in what is usually considered an industrial material. The life-size head is the result of a slow, meticulous building of steel rod layers that she refers to as “drip welding”. The nest and branches are various sizes of copper-coated steel welding rod. The hatched egg is hammered copper sheet. Dimensions 24” high x 18” wide x 10” deep

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