Sarah E.K. Muse & The Southwestern Virginia Metal Arts Guild

Written by Elizabeth Parsons

From an artist’s perspective, Sarah E.K. Muse seems to have it all. Energetic and sparkling with personality, she’s a talented metal artisan with a studio in the gorgeous Studios on the Square in downtown Roanoke. Her work has received critical acclaim and the admiration of fellow artists—not to mention several repeat buyers. She and her writer husband recently adopted a healthy, beautiful boy from Mumbai, India.

But in 2004, Muse sensed something was missing. She was thrilled to be a member of the Studios on the Square community, but felt a bit isolated as the lone metal worker. “The synergy and feedback from other artists was wonderful, but I realized there were problems I was dealing with that were specific to the metal arts,” Muse recalls. Moreover, there was no professional organization in the region—like the Blue Ridge Potters Guild for potters—that addressed these problems or allowed for professional networking.

Did Muse become frustrated with this “hole” in the local arts community? No, she simply remedied it.

“I threw a big cookout and put out a call to all the metal artisans in the area I could find,” Muse remembers. No less than 25 eager participants showed up, and the momentum led to Muse’s founding of the Southwestern Virginia Metal Arts Guild (SVMAG) in January of 2005. Today the guild is 50 members strong and includes sculptors, jewelers, blacksmiths, welders, students, professionals, industry groups, and anyone else who uses metal as their artistic medium. The eclectic hodge-podge of creatives meets once a month to teach, learn, and inspire one another. Meetings rotate from different members’ homes and studios and focus on one aspect of the business—from metal casting to marketing, grant writing to gallery hunting.

Just over a year old, SVMAG has already been invited by the venerable Artisans Center of Virginia in Waynesboro to exhibit in a show slated for 2008.

“Shmeg,” as she playfully calls SVMAG, “happened on a whim, and serendipity took over.” Muse shrugs and smiles as she talks about it, but it’s evident by her intricate creations and growing résumé that the artist is more determined and focused than her bubbly, carefree demeanor lets on. Muse began in the fashion program at Virginia Commonwealth University , where she eventually graduated with a BFA. There she opted for a metal arts class as an elective course and fell in love. “What I loved about textiles I found in metals,” she says. “You can manipulate heated metal [like] textile—it just requires bigger tools and it’s much louder!”

After college, Muse apprenticed with renowned jeweler Robert Smith of Blacksburg . Eventually textile fell to the wayside and metal took over as her life’s work.

Today, the artist manipulates copper, silver, gold, and platinum to craft jewelry and more recently, large sculptural wall hangings. Nature and the feminine body offer two never-ending sources of inspiration—“no matter what I do, it always comes back to these,” says Muse. Specifically, she’s interested in the intricacies of anatomy. Muse’s work may depict a cross-section of a plant or flower, exploring how these forms are assembled. She’s also fascinated by the beauty of the space that lies within—or between—forms.

Using different levels of heat, chemical compositions, and sometimes colored pencil, Muse draws a rich palette from her medium: gleaming turquoise to soft, smoky jade; vibrant crimson to chocolate. Her work is time-consuming and extremely labor-intensive. Non-ferrous metals (copper, silver, gold) become malleable when heated. Through chasing and repoussé—tracing the design on the front of the piece with linear tools, then working the back of the piece to push the metal out using different punches; sinking—hammering on the inside of the object; and raising—hammering on the outside of the object; Muse transforms flat sheets of metal into the sensuous curves of flowers and goddesses. “Metal is a very provocative medium,” the artist remarks.

In addition to her pieces on display at Studios on the Square, Muse has shown work at the Jefferson Center Gallery, Virginia Tech, Open Studios Tour of Roanoke, the Art Museum of Western Virginia , and the Hickory Museum of Art in North Carolina . Muse’s work is also included in the collections of Allied Fibers Inc and the Mary Moody Northern Endowment at Mountain Lake Resort.

Thinking About and Around the Box:

SVMAG’s “The Shape of Things” Show

Muse and 23 SVMAG members will participate in “the Shape of Things,” the organization’s first public show, at Studios on the Square from November 2 through December 20, 2006 . In it, members respond to an intriguing—if deceptively simple—challenge: answering the question “what is a box?” vis-a-vis an art piece. Interpreted literally or conceptually, Muse gives City a sneak peak of the sometimes humorous, sometimes sexy, responses put forth by members—like Allison Pack’s heart-shaped bustier box filled with breast-shaped candies, to Robin Clark’s life-sized iron door within a frame (with a surprise contained within).

Sarah E.K. Muse thinks of herself as an experimenter. She likes to play “with the plasticity of the metal and [explore] how recognizable elements can evolve abstractly into a finished piece…The viewer may then envision the familiar or the unexpected.” Taking the initiative to start a metal arts guild where before there was none; challenging peers and viewers to think about the familiar in new and interesting ways; Muse’s innovative spirit permeates not only her pieces, but her professional and community life as well.

The Shape of Things opening reception takes place Thursday, November 2 from 5 until 8 pm at Studios on the Square and features live music, performance art, holiday treats and drinks. Admission is free and open to the public. Studios on the Square is located at 126 West Campbell Avenue in downtown Roanoke. For more information on the studios, visit www.studiosonthesquare.com or call 540.345.4076. For more information on Sarah E.K. Muse and/or the SVMAG, call 540.345.1844; email lewisreserve@yahoo.com; or visit www.SVMAGmetalartsguild.com.

Posted: November 1st, 2006 under Visions.
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~Elizabeth Parsons’ passion for culture and the arts has earned her a degree in Anthropology and stamps on her passport from places as diverse as Ecuador, Turkey and the European Union. Recently working as a Writer and Event Planner for the Grammy Music Awards in San Francisco, CA, she returns to her hometown of Roanoke to pursue her M.F.A./Creative Writing at Hollins University. Elizabeth can be contacted at 540.345.6300 or elizabeth@citymagazineonline.com.