I had the great fortune to visit with artist Rob Sigafoos at his studio in Brandywine on Sunday. A sculptor and fine craftsman, he makes pieces comprised of metal, wood and stone. Sigafoos lives with his wife and two dogs on the campus of Penn Vet’s New Bolton Center in Kennett Square.
Just getting to his home and studio is a treat for the senses. It is tucked back a bit from the road and is surrounded by woods. Before heading to the studio, he gave me a tour of his home which acts as a gallery to feature his work. Almost everything in it was made by him. When I entered the kitchen area, I was immediately reminded of Wharton Esherick’s work. Although it isn’t aesthetically the same, Sigafoos built a spiral staircase worthy of the comparison. Sigafoos’ work is more ornate; it consists of wood planks for the stairs and a winding steel tree banister that seemingly took root under the floor below and grew tall enough to touch the ceiling on the ground floor. I had read somewhere that Esherick’s staircase is reminiscent of something out of Seuss's "Oh the Places You'll Go”; organic yes, but with a cleaner, more modern line to it.
The Sigafoos kitchen itself brought Esherick to mind too. Sigafoos built all of the cabinets, including facade doors for the refrigerator out of reclaimed wood. He built his counters, the dining table and the sconces used for lighting. The room itself is a work of art. In fact most of his home includes his functional and sculptural pieces. His wife, a woodworker, also has pieces scattered throughout their home. He told me their goal is to eventually furnish their entire house with pieces they have made. It truly embodies the nature surrounding it.
He started making sculpture as a metal artist 35 years ago. His entry into blacksmithing was as a farrier; a craftsman who trims and shoes horses' hooves. He moved here from Virginia in 1983 to work at Penn Vet’s New Bolton Center, where, among other things, he invented a safer way to apply shoes to horses’ hoofs with glue. His no nail horseshoes are used widely today.
In 2006 he retired to focus his attention on his art full time. Since then, he has been steadily garnering more attention for it. He said he gets advice and support from other artist friends, but he is mostly influenced by his natural surroundings. By combining materials like copper or steel with sycamore or walnut wood and sometimes naturally curved bittersweet vines, his pieces become very graceful, even sensual to look at and beg to be touched. In other works, he may use a plumbing pipe but he manipulates it by either forging or chasing it into something that may look familiar but that can’t quite be identified. If you aren’t familiar with the terms, forging means to hammer or press the metal into shape and chasing means to refine the surface of the metal by depressing, raising or pushing the metal into a desired decorative form.
While he enjoys making works for galleries and private commissions, making public art is what he enjoys doing most. Successful commissions include a piece for the Genesis Walkway in downtown Kennett, titled “Kennett Squared” and an installation of a Holocaust Memorial at Synagogue Or Hadash. Installed in 2018, it’s comprised of a steel tree splitting rocks of oppression and reaching towards the sky. The name of the sculpture is לעולם לא ע, translated as “Never Again.” I noticed the number of leaves on the piece and asked Sigafoos about the relevance of that. He told me many things in Judaism are done in multiples of 18 (contributions, donations, days, etc.). “The piece has 10 leaves on one branch, and eight on the other. The number 18 is very significant in Judaism. The 8th and the 10th letters of the Hebrew alphabet spell the word ‘life’.” It’s a majestic piece.
His next project, a piece commissioned by West Chester University, will be installed on the campus in 2020. A sculpture of a large ram, it will be made in part using demolished materials from an on-site boiler plant. For more information about upcoming events and more on Sigafoos, visit http://www.vinewoodsforge.com/
Another event worth checking out: In Chadds Ford, Barbara Moore Fine Art Gallery is hosting “The Nearby Wild – Impressionistic” featuring recent works by Signe Sundberg-Hall and Carol Mangano. A reception will be held on Wednesday October 23rd and the show runs through November 5th. Visit https://www.barbaramoorefineart.com for details.
Whatever you do this week, support the arts!
About Constance McBride
A native of Philadelphia, Constance McBride lived in Arizona for 16 years, where desert observations made a transformative impact on her work as a research based visual artist. Passionate about contemporary art, she was actively engaged in the local arts community. She served as a board member for several art organizations, managed an artist collective/gallery space, curated and juried several exhibitions and wrote for two arts publications in Phoenix. She taught ceramics at Shemer Art Center and Museum and exhibited her work both locally and nationally. McBride returned to Pennsylvania in 2018 and resides in Chester Springs with her husband and two dogs. In West Chester, she serves as a board member at The Art Trust Gallery at Meridian Bank and teaches ceramics at Chester County Art Association. She also teaches at Clay on Main in Oley, PA. She is a member of American Craft Council, Philadelphia Sculptors, and Women’s Caucus for Art, Philadelphia Chapter.
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