CHRISTOPHER THOMSON – RIBERA, NM

“Visioning #11”

Steel powder coat

113” X 24” X 24”

$19,000

Pulling sticks of yellow-hot, 2,300-degree steel from the fire and hammering them to shape before they cool fascinates and excites me as it has mankind for thousands of years. The fluidity and immediacy of forging induces the intuitive, in-the-moment state from which I like to create. Many evenings after work I hike from my blacksmith shop down into the nearby wild Pecos River Canyon, where I swim and then improvise music on my flute. Only after its creation did I realize that the “Visioning” series sub-consciously incorporated sensibilities discovered in that music. Maintaining this freedom of process in larger pieces is an interesting challenge using jib cranes and large, industrial power hammers. This finished piece was powder-coated turquoise, but still exhibits my spontaneous, forged aesthetic. 

Spiral Spirals #2 Yellow

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“Spiral Spirals – Yellow” is an arrangement of 14 varied helixes. In my blacksmith shop I hammer different diameters of hot, round steel bars into long tapers. Next, I wrap them around mandrels into tightly packed, cone-shaped pieces, and then finally, when they are very hot, my assistant and I attach them to a winch and stretch them out to length. Varied heat and cross sections affect their malleability and cause natural variations to their shape, giving them unique characters. In the improvisational “heat of the moment,” I encourage, amplify and direct these variations. I then compose them into groups of three, with an eye toward their interplay. The groups are shaped and supported by an Archimedean conic spiral. Powder-coated bright yellow, this sculpture projects powerfully from a distance, especially when lit at night, as well as inviting close-up contemplation. This sculpture exudes uplifting skyward energy as the spirals move nicely in the wind.

Meet the Artist

As a child, Christopher Thomson worked with wood, played flute, and kayaked the Potomac River. He attended Colorado Rocky Mountain School in Carbondale, CO, and learned the basics of blacksmithing. He is a self-taught furniture and lighting designer, and sculptor. Now living in New Mexico, he continues to forge steel, play the flute, design sculpture, and kayak.

Website: ChristopherThomsonIronWorks.com

Previous Entries

Optimism

Emerging from the black square bottom base, forged from solid 1 1/2″ steel stock, “Optimism” thrust upwards and opens to the sky through the two-slit and drifted holes, inviting the eye skyward. The 12 1/2 ft. tall black vertical culminates in bright red forged forms that unfurl with enthusiasm, gracefully unfolding, suggesting an opening to a new beginning.

Spiral Blooms #6 Spring Buds

Spiral Blooms is the last in a series of sculptures created for public spaces; the series has been evolving for several years. I pull long pieces of dripping-hot steel from the fire and hammer them to shape under large power hammers in the moments before they cool, or before the next piece overheats. The immediacy, physicality, primal force, rhythm, and repetition often induce the mindless, totally aware state in which I like to create. The spirals and bud elements of this sculpture evoke green, spring-like forces of energy, emerging and propelling upwards like starts in the garden in March and April.

Chinlone Garden Orb

In 1954, when Christopher was six years old, his political scientist father returned from a year in  Burma with three wicker chinlone balls. They fascinated the boy, who enjoyed looking at them almost as much as kicking them. These orbs are actually spherical projections of an icosidodecahedron, the Archimedean Solid composed of 20 equilateral triangles and 12 regular pentagons that have fascinated academics for decades. More recently, Buckminster Fuller studied these six great circles, each divided by the others into ten equal arcs.

Visioning #5

This piece is part of a 2018 forged sculpture series entitled (Visioning #5.” Pulling sticks of yellow-hot, 2,500-degree steel from the fire and hammering them into shape before they cool fascinates and excites Christopher as it has mankind for thousands of years. The fluidity and immediacy of forging induce the intuitive, in-the-moment state in which he likes to create. He notes that maintaining this freedom of process in larger pieces is an interesting challenge when using jib cranes and large industrial power hammers.