RENATA MANASSE SCHWEBEL

I tend to work in cycles, using metal, wood and clay, but always returning to welded metals (either stainless steel or aluminum). Most of my sculpture is in the hard-edge non-objective mode, but every so often the wish for humor evokes abstracted figurative work. With the exception of bronze casting, I have in the past preferred to do all the actual construction myself. I find that the feel of the material and the handling of tools is as much a part of the joy of sculpture as the originating of ideas. But one grows older, and, in more recent years, I have used the assistance of foundries in the fabricating of works over 6 feet in size.

 

My love of the direct handling of metal got its start with the opportunity of working in the foundry of my Antioch sculpture professor, Amos Mazzolini. In his superb foundry, the sculptures of such artists as Carl Milles were cast. Mazzolini himself worked in the classical mode and his portraits and fountains gave me a deep appreciation for craftsmanship. I got my MFA degree at Columbia University studying with Oronzio Maldarelli, and, later on, classes taught by Helen Beling completed my traditional training.

 

For a while, busy with household and children, I did little else than portrait sculpture. Finding that I got hung up on details to the detriment of the whole, I thought that welding metals would be a good exercise in forcing myself away from details. Two years at the Art Student League's welding workshop, followed by a summer course at Hobart Welding School in Troy, Ohio, led me to the road I followed for the rest of my life.