Trisha Townsend, artist
For Trisha Townsend, the thing she decided she didn’t want to do led her in a roundabout way to the thing she did. She had gone back to Blue Ridge Community College to take accounting classes, but it was a welding class she signed up for on a whim that captivated her. “I’d go early and stay late,” she says. “I couldn’t wait to go back.” She heard about metal artist Steve Joslyn’s work as she was finishing up her degree in 2020, and went to meet him. “I found a kindred spirit,” Townsend says. “He offered to let me come to his shop and learn from him. The welding education was focused on structural welding. Steve made nature into metal. That’s what I wanted to try to do.”
Steve Joslyn, artist
Joslyn Fine Metalwork, in Arden, is a metal fabrication studio for hot forging, cold forming and welding. Joslyn has a BFA in metalwork and graphic design from the University of Wisconsin and has worked with metal for more than 40 years. His original works, including lamps, sculptures and candelabras, draw inspiration from the natural world and are created using steel, aluminum, bronze and copper.
Through the years, Joslyn has mentored many students and has demonstrated blacksmithing at national conferences. “Over the last five years, Trisha has become a talented and skilled metalworker,” he says and she, in turn, says that he has taught her most of what she knows. “Much of creating with metal involves figuring out the process of how to shape the metal into the forms you need,” Townsend says. “I usually talk through my process with Steve, and see how he would go about creating it. Bugs are my thing. But really, I’m happiest when I get to play with metal, regardless of what I’m working on. Every project has a learning curve and a great sense of satisfaction when it’s completed.”
Find the work of both artists at The Lucy Clark Gallery & Studio, located at 51 West Main Street, Brevard. Hours are Monday through Saturday 10:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Sunday 12–4 p.m. To learn more, visit LucyClarkGallery.com or call 828.884.5151.
