The ASV Meeting of 15th February 2012

The first meeting of the year was in a new location – the Masonic Hall Rowans Road Moorabbin. Sixteen sculptors found the place and enjoyed a great evening. The proceedings were a reminder that our greatest resource is our fellow members – the diversity of ideas, skills, tools and approaches to sculpture is a revelation and an inspiration.
In welcoming us Gillian Govan pointed out that monthly meetings are a good way for members to contribute – run or speak at a meeting and you have made a valuable contribution.
In March we’ll be at Bayside Sculpture Studio – see the listing in the ASV diary and on ASV activities in the newsletter.
Other housekeeping included a mention of Herring Island exhibition just finished for the sculptors (although the festival is still running) and notification that entries close for the MIFGS exhibition on February 24th.
We welcomed new members Mary McMahon and Fatih Semiz at the meeting.
Rod Sanders set us on a project by bringing in some seminal works on modelling for sculptors. The intention is to start a library. Marija Patterson has volunteered to act as librarian – she will house books at her studio and maintain a register of books and manage borrowing via the Internet. Naturally enough donations of books are welcome and ideas on how to manage the library and keep it accessible to members are welcome. There will be more information in future newsletters.

Michael Meszaros talked about his copper work: "Tree"

Andrew Bryant’s sculptural chair of recycled red
gum house stumps and stainless steel

Then we launched into “show and tell”. Michael Meszaros talked about his copper tree made from a single copper rod warping through space. Rod Sanders told us the story spanning forty years of his Tree Form – the maquette, the timber sculpture and the future Corten sculpture. Valda Cuming talked about silt stone from Coober Pedy and showed us a delightful small carving – the larger piece of stone was not brought home-sigh! Betty Knight also had a tale to tell of her travels in Central Australia and showed us the plaster made from a clay portrait of an Aboriginal boxer. And again the discovered piece of stone – possibly jadeite. Jenny Whiteside brought in her first school sculptures – and some favourite tools. Jenny sources a lot of her tools on the Internet – Italian rifflers and files, air tools... a great array. John Bishop showed us his carving axes. There was one for stone and a couple of beauties for wood. Gillian showed us a version of her cold cast “Bracing the Elements” using stainless steel instead of bronze powder. In spite of much polishing she never got the stainless look and settled instead for an oil paint “patina”. This idea naturally lead into discussions of bronze patination – you really had to be there! The cameras really came out when Andrew Bryant brought out his sculptural chair of recycled red gum house stumps and stainless steel – it is both beautiful and functional (comfortable according to the people who sat on it).

Rod and Fatih in deep discussion

And after that the shyer members pulled out folios and tools and chattered in small groups – we discovered new member Fatih Semiz and a great folio of work. Fatih is likely to talk to us about his work in April – we’ll confirm that later.
It was a great evening – and thanks to Gillian for not only sourcing the venue and providing food and drink, but caring for us generally and thanks to Rod for those fantastic blueberries.