Martina Angela Muller (left) and Alexander Madey with the sculpture installation.
A sculpture entitled ‘Flight’ by artist Martina Angela Müller is currently on display at Hawthorne Valley near the Farm Store. Müller serves as a core faculty member at the Alkion Center for Adult Education and is director of the new Lightforms Art Center in Hudson.
The sculpture design was inspired by a piece of cedar wood found in nature. Müller amplified and enlarged the wing-like structure of the wood to create the final design.
“We often pass by the most miraculous manifestations of form, movement, and color in nature,” Müller says. “It was incredibly joyful to work with these wonderful movements, to take them from nature, transform them through the artistic process and then reinsert them back into nature in form of a finished artwork to celebrate the creative forces of both nature and humans combined.”
As his Senior Project last year, Hawthorne Valley Waldorf School alumni Alexander Madey ’20 cast the sculpture from a small stoneware maquette enlarged in aluminum with the sandcasting method. It was cast in 17 separate pieces, welded, ground and polished until it had reached perfection. Alexander was mentored through the process by Ivan Goodman, who works at Polich-Tallix, one of America’s premier art foundries. Peter Barrett provided the base, and East Coast Refinishing completed the paint finish.
“The whole process took over a year and every new step demanded a new creative solution,” Müller says. “I am deeply grateful for Alexander’s ingenuity, engineering prowess, creative problem-solving ability, his skill, perseverance and the support of his family and Ivan Goodman in the process.”
Please note: while our campus is currently closed to visitors due to the pandemic, the sculpture is easily viewable from the area immediately surrounding the Farm Store, which is open.
For more information about the Alkion Center for Adult Education or Lightforms Arts, contact Martina Müller by email or at 518-672-8008.
