Bio
Ciarán Spence is an artist based out of Sinking Spring, PA. He graduated from the University of Rochester in May of 2017, receiving a BA in Studio Arts with a minor in Psychology. Additionally, he was accepted into a Fifth-Year Scholarship Program that focused students on pursuing and executing an entrepreneurial endeavor. For this program, known as the Kauffman Entrepreneurial Year or KEY, Ciarán established the Art Cart of Rochester. The Art Cart operates similarly to an art version of a leave-a-book take-a-book, with the mission “to provide a useful outlet for excess artwork that benefits artists and art lovers alike”.
As an artist, Ciarán started out in a high school ceramics class. His interest and experience in art grew as he began working summers for his high school ceramics teacher Caroline Henderson. At the college level, he tried as many mediums as were offered in the curriculum. With a passion for working with his hands and an appreciation for smooth, flowing design, he began excelling in sculpture, particularly metal sculpture, continually encouraged by local artist and U of R adjunct professor John Archer. Ciarán developed greatly in metalworking while working for the esteemed artist Albert Paley, spending nine months at Paley Studios. Following graduation, he opened his own sculpture studio in Fairport, NY, which has since moved to Sinking Spring, PA. In addition to his own work, he assists the ceramics program at Goggleworks in Reading, PA.
Artist Statement
Playfully elegant: a description not commonly associated with metal, yet it’s an aesthetic I constantly strive for in my work. Having been exposed to and inspired by sculptors who subscribe to a mantra of ‘twenty feet tall and made of steel,’ I fully recognize the robust, imposing nature metal can present. But metal has an impartial potential to be transformed from a cold sheet or a rigid bar into a warm, airy figure. It is this form I find most desirable and eye-catching, and it is achieved by breathing heat and life into an otherwise unwavering material.
To accomplish this transformation, I often look to calligraphy for inspiration. Calligraphy is an artform that utilizes elegant movements to create beautiful figures, and its similarities to metalworking are extraordinary. In the right hands, I see no difference between a sculptor using a torch and a calligrapher using a brush. Both require a skilled steadiness, a control of an ever-fluctuating tempo, and a responsiveness to the needs of their material. I find that Arabic calligraphy lends itself particularly well to be transposed into sculptural forms. While it remains bound to paper, the singular, smooth, overlapping of a brushstroke gives many Arabic letters, phrases, and figures the appearance of being three-dimensional. I rely on visualizing those movements to reconstruct its sculptural counterpart. From there, it is a simple matter of combining that mental reconstruction with my understanding of metal to create light, graceful artwork.