A six-foot metal moth sculpture is just one of the inventive, 3-D designs coming out of Red Deer Polytechnic’s Welding for Artists course in the summer Series program.
Metal/glass artist and instructor Trenton Leach said he can help his students make almost anything they dream up; “My only rule is it’s got to fit into a vehicle so you can take it home at the end of the week.”
Last week’s moth sculpture pushed the envelope by barely fitting into the back of a Volkswagen, he added, with a chuckle.
Leach has been teaching at Series for five summers. He likes showing students how to use professional welding equipment and various techniques to make everything from decorative wall plaques and garden decorations to a giant sculpture resembling a dandelion that’s’ gone to seed.
“I love the creativity of the students,” Leach explained. You never know what they are going to come up with, and it makes me think about he craft I am doing… It’s all about problem-solving.”
This summer, the RDP Series program is running for only two weeks , compared to four previously. Tamara Vigon, the associate program co-ordinator for Series, said every post-secondary institution is finding that programs are taking a while to find their legs again after the pandemic, so it was decided to scale back Series this year, with the hope of building it back up in future.
Over the last two weeks a total of 15 creative classes were taken by 160 students in everything from sculpture to painting and creative writing. As well, a one-day preview was held last Saturday to whet appetites for the program.
Red Deer resident Jodi Dore returned for her sixth summer, taking both weeks of Leach’s classes at Series.
As a painter, she said she enjoys stretching her artistic skills into 3-D art and design. She feels empowered by learning to use heavy-duty welding equipment safety and efficiently. “You feel like Tim-the Tool-man-Taylor,” Dore joked, referencing the TV show Home Improvement.
This year’s projects include a decorative stair railing and Dore is also mixing metal with glass marbles to create a unique mailbox. In past summers she created wall hangings in a spiral design and a lighting feature built into a relief sculpture of metal trees.
Leach encourages students to come into the week-long program with some designs in mind. They each get a bucket of metal parts to work with and learn how to use some machinery, from high-end grinders and a plasma cutters, to old-school hammers and anvils.
His class focuses on combining metal with stained glass and marbles. Leach recalled one of his favourite student sculptures from years past was a pea pods and vines, used glass marbles as the peas.
Leach, who create a popular marble and metal public artwork at the G.H. Dawe Centre, recently moved his Rogue Art and Design operation to Lacombe from Red Deer. This fall he will open a new studio in the basement of Lacombe’s Performing Arts Centre, where he will teach classes and sell stained glass supplies.
