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Instructor: Judy Pfaff
June 24 -28
Monday - Friday
9am - 3pm
5 Sessions
In this new and improved welding class not only will you learn basic welding techniques using a MIG (Metal Inert Gas) welder, but there will be focus on adding disparate materials, everyday objects, meaning-making assemblage sculpture. There are YouTube videos on the art of assemblage; I would encourage you to look at them. This class is open to anyone with or without previous metalworking experience. This class will be fun and you will leave with an overview of several welding techniques. We will focus on MIG (Metal Inert Gas) welding, which is accessible, fast and can be mastered quickly enough to have everyone making sculpture, three-dimensional forms, stand-alone structures, or armatures used in conjunction with other materials. You will be introduced to the MIG welders, how to set up, weld, and troubleshoot. Oxyacetylene techniques will also be demonstrated for heating and bending steel, and angle grinders will be used to grind, clean, and cut steel.
My aim with this workshop is to get you comfortable with welding. Bring ideas, notes, sketches; gather steel, (not stainless or aluminum) and objects to add to your structures. We will hit the ground running.
Castle Hill provides safety equipment for welding, but feel free to bring your own. You may wish to bring your own safety glasses and work gloves. Students must wear cotton clothing, and closed toe leather shoes. Please wear long pants and clothing without frays.
Judy Plaff, often cited as a pioneer of installation-art and contributor to the Pattern and Decoration Movement (P&D), has created work that spans disciplines from painting to printmaking and sculpture to installation. Born in London in 1946, Pfaff received a BFA from Washington University Saint Louis (1971) and an MFA from Yale University (1973) where she studied with Al Held. She exhibited work in the Whitney Biennials of 1975, 1981, and 1987, and represented the United States in the 1998 São Paulo Bienal. Her pieces reside in the permanent collections of MoMA, the Whitney Museum of Art, Tate Gallery, Brooklyn Museum of Art, and Detroit Institute of Arts, among others. She is currently represented by the Miles McEnery and Accola Griefen galleries in New York and has been previously represented by Holly Solomon, Carl Solway and Susanne Hilberry. She is the recipient of many awards including the Lifetime Achievement Award from the International Sculpture Center (2014), the MacArthur Foundation Award (2004), and the Guggenheim Fellowship (1983). Pfaff lives and works in Tivoli, New York.