Introduction

Hi, my name is Mike Edelman. This is the third time I've started a blog about doing metal art. Maybe it is the 4th time? It doesn't matter. I get ambitious. I remember that the process is the real truth in a medium, and I passionately resolve that I WILL SHARE the process with the world. After all, the work everyone see's is experimentation distilled into a single moment. It is not the continuous spectrum of idea, execution, failure and success.

In this blog I will share the experimentation process. Sometimes that will be through explaining art. Sometimes I'll talk about the long walks I take with my dog (Oy) and the conversations we have about the universe. Every act, every breath and every thought goes through the blender of an artists brain and at the moment of execution, of creation, is manifest into physical form.

Let me tell you a little bit about myself before we move along. I think I'm 34. Okay, facebook just told me I am, but I forget a lot. I've been doing some form of metalwork since I was maybe 13 or 14. I was the brat that in school had my own agenda, and it was not standardized tests. I would sneak wire rings and pliers into school, and make chain art under the desk during class. When a teacher caught me and took the pliers, well, I had sewn hidden pockets in my coat and had more pliers and rings than my teachers had will power.

Ever since then, I have always “made things”. For some artists, it is expression that drives them. I'm not one of those artists. I don't for one minute feel the need to express my self to the world. I do, because it happens naturally—you cannot speak without part of you being transferred and expressed, but that is not my motive. My motive is curiosity.

Curiosity is my fuel. Everyday I dream of something that does not exist and then I feel the NEED to create it. Without it, my world feels empty. “It” has been a variety of things, from a solar death ray (that really did instantly ignite wood) to more practical things like the form of a necklace. I NEEDED to see what would happen, so I made it happen. No one is going to execute my ideas for me, and I am so compelled to see how they turn out, that I'm perpetually fulfilling the cycle of “what if”.

Nearly every piece I have ever created has been part of that cycle. I am perplexed by how metal moves, melts, burns and flows. Each day I create a new experiment. But, this is not science, it is art, and the experiment is permeated with my bias. It is ripe with my mood, it echoes the conversations I have with Oy, my bike rides and all the other influences in my life. The experiment merges a thesis with human fallacy and when that moment is solidified into a form, my art is created.

I am metal artist Mike Edelman, and over the next few months, I'd like you to share in these experiments with me.

Also, for those few of you interested, here is a link to one of the old blogs: http://medelmanart.blogspot.com/