I’ve lived between Fort Road and the river for about 25 years now. Finally, about three years ago I was able to design and build a studio for my work. It’s amazing — especially after spending the previous four years working in our driveway year around. There I’d be, standing in a snow bank, bending metal...

 

It all started during the 1960s. I grew up in a pretty progressive home. Both my parents were teachers. My mom taught second grade in the public schools, and my dad was a professor of Art Education at Drake University. Growing up around an art department I met many interesting people who influenced my life. I was probably about nine or ten when I met Doug Hendrickson, the sculpture teacher at Drake. Besides my mom and dad, he probably had the most influence on my life. Doug helped me cast bronze in high school and gave me a lot of encouragement along the way.

I received a bachelor’s degree from Drake and a master’s degree from the University of Minnesota in sculpture. Most of my time in school was spent working with metal and studying art history. My first job after graduating was in the computer graphic field. That led to learning computer graphic software, creating animation, and producing and managing nationally distributed interactive software. Then the dot-com bubble burst, and I decided to return to sculpture full time.

Today, making sculpture, furniture, home accessories, and jewelry is my business. I still use the computer extensively in my design process and use various software tools to visualize an idea before getting my hands dirty. In some cases I’ll output computer files that guide cutting machines to produce parts for some of my pieces. My metalwork has evolved from what I call fabrication, primarily cutting and welding, to more traditional metalsmithing and blacksmithing. Some of the techniques that are increasingly prominent in my life are chasing and repoussé in bronze, copper, and silver, and forging iron.

In December 2009 I was elected to the Board of Directors of The Guild of Metalsmiths, a chapter of the Artist-Blacksmith’s Association of North America (ABANA), an organization dedicated to the art of metalworking. Galleries currently representing my work are The Bloomington Art Center; Blue Sky Galleries, Minneapolis; The Grand Hand, St. Paul; and BNOX Gold & Iron in Pepin, Wisconsin. As time goes on I am drawn to learning ancient techniques to work metal while still embracing computer technology to design and show that work. Visit hixwerx.com for more details.