Rachel‘s thought provoking and elegant new metalwork is forged from a place of unusual wisdom and social consciousness. Exhibit runs July 5th through August 16^th, Artist Reception Friday, August 1^st, 6-11pm.

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About Rachel:

Rachel David is an artist blacksmith. She grew up in Maryland and made her first met al project, a firewood holder, in the seventh grade, unfortunately that was the last piece of metal work until 2001 when she rediscovered sculpture and her fascination with the versatility and plasticity of metal. In 2004 she graduated from the Evergreen State College with a focus on metal sculpture. At the Penland School of Craft she studied with Maegan Crowley and E.A.Chase, and assisted Jeffrey Funk. In the fall of 2006, Rachel taught classes at The Steel Yard in Providence Rhode Island and was a visiting artist at the Appalachian center for Craft in Tennessee. Rachel says, ”I am fascinated by the romantic nature of the blacksmith, we are the only trade that has made ourselves obsolete by our inventions over time.” Forging is the process of heating metal until it glows yellow, becoming pliable enough for the creator to manipulate it to the desired shape. Forging is a very direct method of creation; there is a long, arduous and loving process involved in transforming the raw material into its final shape. Rachel is inspired by people’s emotional and physical gestures and how these gestures are mimicked in natural forms. “As I create, I work with a few forms, repeating them over and over in different combinations to develop a vocabulary in order to share my ideas visually.” Her recent work focuses on the fatality of humans; where people are coming from, going to and how they affect their surroundings. Rachel now works in her New Orleans’ studio in the 9th Ward sweating and dreaming.

Read Rachel's Eat the Bomb Artist Statement