About The Artist
My work investigates the crux between the real and the imaginary, the useful and the useless. Blacksmithing is a craft medium known for combining utility and beauty, lending to a medium that satisfies both tool and art making. This is reflected in my knife work, where pattern-welded steel creates unique and intricate patterns within the blade, resulting in visually satisfying objects that are comfortable to use.
In addition to metal work, I have a strong drawing practice that employs a myriad of media, such as watercolour, pencil crayon, ink and graphite. Borrowing from fairy tales, urban fantasies, and mythical creatures, my drawings revolve around themes of the Monstrous Feminine, surrealism and the uncanny. It investigates emotional responses to desire and consumption, and the feminine consumer rather than the feminine consumed. This aspect of my art challenges the functional qualities of blacksmithing and works to subvert the sturdy and static nature of steel. By introducing these contradictions into my metalwork, I have embedded my work with a sense of life through movement. My focus has been on creatures–both real and imaginary—and recreating their lifelike nature with deceptively delicate and intricate details. Moments from getting up and flying away, my sculptures are trapped by the reality of the medium in which they were created, forever frozen in immovable forms.
Sophia DePaoli 