I am a blacksmith artist making hand forged architectural elements, furniture and sculpture. I strive to create work that invites the viewer’s touch with a tactile, appealing surface. I fashion organic, botanical forms using abstract, contemporary aesthetics to achieve my goal of creating well-proportioned and timeless functional art. As a blacksmith I heat mild steel to 2500 degrees F in a gas or coal forge. Once the material is heated to a plastic state, I am able to form hand forged components that are joined with rivets, tendons, dovetails or collars. I work to push this traditional approach to new boundaries, making new methods, built on the old to create furniture and architectural elements for a contemporary collector. My goal is to create work that is not only functional but is beautiful high quality that pushes the viewer’s beliefs in what steel can do.

Chris draws each design out freehand on a sheet of stainless steel with magic marker, he then cuts every element of negative and positive space with a hand held electric torch thus leaving the viewer with a musicality of shapes dancing on a plane of steel. This sheet then gets some added dimension by building on stainless side-panels, or by being domed up with heat. he then welds on ball-bearings, masonry nails and metal rod. Some pieces get punches of enamel color and gold-leaf and copper-leaf.

Copper, brass, bronze and aluminum sculpture. An oxygen acetylene torch and many mechanical hand tools are used. Also many dyes, heat firings, paints and patinas are used for coloring. I am influenced by different forms of architecture and also by nature. I consider my work “jewelry for the wall”.

I draw on several decades of design experience in photography, textiles and silkscreen printing in creating my sculptures. I use carbon steel and enamels to achieve a colorful, rustic and whimsical result. I try to bring a contemporary spark to the garden and home by creating figurative, happy sculptures. www.artzooo.com