The entire Spring course catalog can be seen online at www.sanctuaryarts.org.
You'll find descriptions of the courses taught by Carol Ann Morley here and
you can also watch Lauren and Josh chat with The Gossip Lady.
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Oak Leaves - Carol Morley
I've always been interested
in the variety of paths artists take in their creative journeys. While
studying Botanical drawing with Carol Ann Morley, I became curious about
her transition from an early career as a medical and scientific illustrator
to her current passion for Botanical Illustration. I feel that Carol
is a uniquely gifted artist and teacher and a rather hidden gem in this
seacoast arts community. As a Botanical Illustrator of national renown,
she has commanded waiting lists for her workshops at Botanic Gardens,
Audubon Societies, Arboretums, Horticulture Societies and Scientific
Research Centers. Here, perhaps because of that “Hometown” thing,
and the fact that she seldom blows her own horn, she does not have the
local reputation she richly deserves. Carol was gracious enough to come
by for tea and talk to me about her amazingly adventurous life.
Nature was always a focus of
Carol's since she was a child in England, with plants and animals an
all consuming world from which she drew her inspiration. As a small
kid she rode her bike to the country, volunteering at riding stables,
pig and dairy farms, anything that would allow her to be in the natural
world. She loved nursing sick and wounded animals and wanted more than
anything to become a veterinarian. Because of the inflexible nature
of the British school system in the 1950's, she was unable to
pursue a career as a vet and turned to her love of art instead, attending
an art school for 5 years and earning a national diploma in design with
a specialty in illustration.
An adventurer, Carol traveled
all over Europe on holidays, and then chose to emigrate to the US, landing
in NYC. Her interest in medicine led to a job as a medical illustrator
at Harlem Hospital, where she also audited classes in gross anatomy
and neuro-anatomy at Columbia Medical School and apprenticed in the
surgery and autopsy lab, spending hours dissecting and playing her flute
to the cadavers. While working as an art director and medical illustrator,
she was offered a job at Pace University in NY where she taught drawing
and illustration and started a new program, the first in the northeast,
in Scientific Illustration. She was also responsible for an innovative
program in Portfolio presentation and Business Practices for the Artist
which incorporated role playing for negotiating with clients, and writing
resumes and contracts. While at Pace she received an award for “outstanding
faculty”. Carol then began teaching plant and animal drawing at the
Bronx Zoo and at the New York Botanical Garden, developing a Botanical
Art and Illustration Certificate Program which was the only one in the
country when it began. She continues to teach there as a visiting instructor.
She also started a Natural Science Illustration Certificate program
at the Institute of Eco System Studies in Millbrook NY.
After 16 productive years in
NYC and another 5 in upstate NY, Carol moved to the seacoast where she
taught at UNH and now at Sanctuary Arts, where we are so fortunate to
have her. Her love of nature, music and dance come through in her penetrating
and dynamic studies that are both realistic in content and lyrical in
feeling. She is a superb colorist, great teacher of composition and
the techniques of mark making. I feel blessed to be able to take classes
with Carol Ann Morley here at Sanctuary Arts. She has a wealth of technical
and aesthetic information to convey and I hope to garner every last
nugget in my quest to finally learn how to draw.
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A Quick History of Green Foundry
at Sanctuary Arts
In 2004, after 6 years of obsessing
about having my own casting facility, I began the process of erecting
a bronze casting foundry. I had been sending my sculpture to be cast
with Glenn Campbell of Campbell Plaster and Iron in West Rutland Vermont,
which was a 3 hour drive for me, and the process of delivering and picking
up became onerous. Glenn was generous with his advice on designing,
equipping and setting up a functioning art foundry.
I had a pad poured
to accept a steel building when Lauren Holmgren and Josh Dow wandered
by and announced that they were going to run my foundry. They were attending Mass College of Art where they were learning foundry practices. Lauren
worked as the technical foundry assistant for 3 years, and Josh built
furnaces as his art form. I said that the foundry was not built yet, and they said that was OK because they were still in school. A year
later after the building had been erected, with the generous help of
my son Aaron, my business partner Rob Wallis, my friend, student and
colleague Tom Farina, and the architectural design talents of Steven
Lee, Josh and Lauren showed up to run the foundry.
The building had
no windows or doors, and we had minimal used equipment to begin with.
Former sculpture student and now colleague Jean Dibner helped us set
up a business relationship that was equable and we began the adventure
in casting. We named it Green Foundry because we wanted to follow the
green practices pioneered by Glenn Campbell that were non polluting,
doing a boil out process for wax that reclaimed all the wax instead
of burning it out and polluting the atmosphere. Also my grandmother,
whose last name was Green, had always encouraged my creativity, saying,
“God gave you talent, so use it”. Plus, the building itself is the
color green.
The Green Foundry is a light filled, very active environment where classes
are offered by Lauren and Josh who love to share their
casting and sculpture
expertise. They are active performance iron casters with a group mentored
by Glenn Campbell, called The Iron Guild (www.ironguild.net), which I will write about at
another time.
This semester they offer 3
foundry classes. Check out SA 18, Hands on Sculpture; Methods &
Materials, SA 20, Piles of Tiles: Bronze Tile Making, and SA 21, Iron Casting Bonanza
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