Feature Artist: Steve Joslyn

By Gina Malone

Steve Joslyn took his first metalworking class at the University of Wisconsin in 1977. The class was three hours long. “We got started and the first time I looked at the clock, the class was over,” Joslyn says. “I knew at that moment I had found my passion. I had never experienced total concentration and focus where time vanished.”

For his BFA, he concentrated on metalworking and graphic design and had plans to be a jeweler. When he was a semester away from graduation, he enrolled in an independent study class with a graduate student working toward a master’s degree in metalworking. “His focus was forging iron,” says Joslyn. “Forging iron changed everything and I never looked back.”

By 1982, Joslyn was working with wrought iron and reading and researching the history of blacksmithing, including toolmaking, knifemaking and ornamental ironwork. Most of his work is made from iron and steel. Working with intensely hot metal, he says, requires both “brute force and finesse.” His process of working is based on wu wei, a Chinese concept that literally means “inaction,” but refers to how the mind becomes absorbed in the work at hand without a conscious thinking process. “This allows the gates of the imagination to fly open and I can follow it wherever it goes,” says Joslyn. “I think of my work as an exercise in controlled spontaneity.”

Joslyn’s metalwork displays a theme of reverence for nature which he first found growing up on a farm in Wisconsin. “I observe nature in the finest detail,” he says. “Observing these details humbles me as an artist. I am overwhelmed by the immense beauty surrounding us. The goal is not to copy nature outright but to capture its essence and connect with the inward significance.”

His pieces, whether decorative or functional, commissioned or his own creations, begin with brainstorming and sketches. “Ideas start from a conversation,” he says. “When I am doing my own work, that is a conversation with nature and my response to it. When I am doing a commission, the conversation begins with careful listening to my client and applying my experience and creativity to their ideas.” He then begins thumbnail sketches, tight at first as he focuses on the broad design. “As the process continues, I become looser and more spontaneous and the magic begins to happen,” says Joslyn. “After about a dozen or so, I go back and see if one or two might be developed further with more refinement.”

Joslyn has created a wide variety of work, including railings, gates, fireplace enclosures and sculpture, but his main focus is on home furnishings and lighting. “There are many techniques used to create my pieces, including hot and cold forming, cutting and grinding, and a wide variety of finishing techniques,” he says. “The work is sandblasted before color is applied and is generally finished with a clear topcoat.” He describes his work as “elegant, simple and delicate in design, with a touch of whimsy.” Influences include the work of modernist Albert Paley as well as work from the Art Nouveau and Impressionist periods.

That gripping fascination for metalwork in his early days of learning the art manifests now as an inner peace. “It is almost a meditation when the outside noise falls away and I feel intensely present,” says Joslyn. “Some people are able to write beautiful poetry and proses, others can sing like angels, still others bake the best pies. I forge iron. This is my unique gift and it is how I see the world and what I want to share with others.”

Joslyn Fine Metalwork is located at 37B Loop Road in Arden. Hours are Monday through Friday 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., and Saturday and Sunday by appointment. Calling ahead before a visit is recommended: 828.490.9918. Find Joslyn’s work at The Gallery at Flat Rock, in Flat Rock, and at The Lucy Clark Gallery, in Brevard.