September, 2008
September, 2008 |
FLIP featured artist
Esther barR the veteran effects animator on her work with metal |
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In 1975 my folks took my family on a vacation to Israel. One side trip was to an artist colony called Safed. We visited many galleries while there, and one of the artists in the village was kind enough to invite us back to his studio while he demonstrated how he worked on a piece. Working in copper relief, his subjects were mostly dancing Rabbis and fruit bowls. My parents bought one of the dancing Rabbis and we continued our travels. I really did not think this had made much of a lasting impression. I guess I was wrong. I never really considered studying metal. I attended Rhode Island School of Design as an Illustration major, later changing to Experimental Film, which eventually led me to California Institute of the Arts. After graduating I found work as a special effects animator for the next 20 years.
Coincidentally, I happened upon the website for Sharon Anhorn, a repoussé artist, who was offering a workshop that spring at her studio in Loveland, Colorado. The memory of the Israeli artist community I had seen as a little girl combined with the idea of getting away from work for a week to a picturesque town near the Rockies was overpowering, and I jumped at the chance. Sharon, who has since become both mentor and friend, is an exceptional repoussé artist. Her work is stunning, from small intimate pieces to massive commissioned installations. I realized that this what I wanted to do, hopefully for a living. I returned to LA, with a plan to finish out my commitment at Dreamworks and quit animation. For the next three years, I drove 60 miles to Mission Viejo, CA twice a week to take classes with Larry Jones at Saddleback College. There I learned about metallurgy, casting, etching, raising vessels, soldering and more. Larry is an incredible teacher who seems to know the answer to any problem. It took four years before I felt comfortable and had a body of work to exhibit in public. I use two techniques to form the metal, repoussé and embossing. Repoussé is the French word for pushed from behind. I begin work on the backside of the metal with customized tools to push in lines for the silhouette of my design. I have to flip over the sheet metal to further refine these shapes on the front side of the piece. I return to the backside to raise the relief either by pushing into the metal with a burnisher against a soft surface or by using hammers over an anvil or a piece of wood. I turn the piece repeatedly adding either more relief on the backside or textures and details on the front side. An embossed piece starts with a carving in linoleum, just as I would if I were a printmaker. I then pull the completed carving with a thin copper sheet through my etching press. The resulting relief may only have a percentage of my desired relief so I refine and raise more of the design with tools and hammers. A limited edition often includes members that have been cropped, hammered and otherwise manipulated and experimented on. As a result, each piece is a unique individual. My pieces are then finished with custom patinas and/or torch-fused vitreous enamels. I really enjoy experimenting with patinas, sometimes in an abstract fashion, using very loose and painterly techniques. When I work with glass enamels, I use an acetylene torch much as I would a paintbrush to help move colors around a piece. From experimentation, I learn what is possible to achieve, but I can never take for granted that I will be able to repeat any particular effect. I sometimes think that is the most exciting aspect of my finished work.
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Having been a special effects animator for over 20 years has made me a different kind of metal smith. I am always trying to impart a sense of movement, even in the metal, which can be a very hard thing to achieve. Metal art design can tend to be more rigid and symmetrical since the craftsperson is often forced to plan the execution of shapes due in part to the demands and limitations of working in metal. Working predominately with thinner gauges I am able to draw on the metal much as I would on paper. I am then able to develop the details of the design in the final medium itself, rather than having to take a finalized design and trace it in to the metal. This really frees up my ability to create flowing lines and shapes by working intuitively into the metal. In the animation industry I was usually given the story, the characters and the backgrounds. It took me less time than I thought to find a comparable support system and no time to appreciate the freedom I now had to make all my own decisions. I have always loved Art Nouveau and the Arts and Crafts Movement. Metal works were more prevalent during these eras. More importantly, Art Nouveau is design that borrows forms from nature; designs were organic and highly stylized. The Arts and Crafts Movement was a reaction to the Industrial Revolution and inspired handcrafted work with no aid from "soulless" machines. Recently I have also been embracing my design past and have been including more and more water and other effects (with the exception of laser beams and ectoplasm). When I first started working in copper, I had no idea that I would decide to work on a continuing series of marine life. I researched my new subject and found it hard not to be fascinated by a creature that at birth is approximately 2 ½ inches, and matures to the size of a VW Bug (weighing in at 1500 lbs.). One of my other favorite subjects has been the octopus. What effects animator couldn't love something that changes color, shape and texture. Not to mention the ink cloud they use as an extra distraction. Did I mention that they are smart? One story that has been going around for years has an octopus continually escaping his enclosure at an aquarium, to eat the neighboring exhibits. He always returned to his tank before morning and left no evidence (not to mention witnesses) of his crimes. They installed a nanny cam and caught him on tape. I exhibit at galleries but I primarily sell my own work at juried art festivals exhibiting throughout California, also shows in Oregon, Washington, Utah and Arizona. Selling your own work has its advantages. Meeting people when I travel to these juried art festivals can be a very rewarding experience. Maybe no one who loves an octopus or is fascinated by a jellyfish can be a bad or boring person. I presently have gallery representation in Laguna Beach CA, Monterey CA, North Hollywood CA, and in Depoe Bay OR. I have also shown in other galleries from Scottsdale AZ to Port Townsend WA. If you email me through my website at estherbarr.com I will send you a gallery page of available works, along with a schedule of this year's festival exhibitions and gallery locations. |
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While I was working on what would become my last feature at Dreamworks, Spirit, it had become obvious that 2D animation was well on its way to being overshadowed by 3D computer graphics. To change over from traditional animation to the computer world would not have been an easy transition for an effects animator such as myself, especially one with an aversion to both numbers and typing.
Although on the surface metal sheets and animation cells don't appear to have much in common, I find that my approach to repoussé turns out to be very similar to what I used for animation: learn as much as possible about the technical aspects of the medium, then experiment like hell. You have to understand that metal needs to move in a particular way, and how certain chemicals will react to the metal. Sometimes you have to sacrifice pieces to discover new techniques. 
I tend to favor very busy and complicated designs, but in class, I needed a simple design in order to learn new techniques. I decided to choose a Leatherback Turtle, in part because the design of their shell is streamlined and simple and the silhouette is strong. I also knew that I would be able to eventually add my stylized water. 
