About Lyell
I returned to the Saratoga area in 1984 after completing my MFA in Painting at MICA in Baltimore. I began teaching at Skidmore as an adjunct instructor in 1990 and eventually became a fulltime Teaching Professor in the Art Dept. teaching Painting and Drawing.
Because of my background and interest in gallery work, I became the Assistant Director of The Schick Gallery in the Saisselin Art Center in 2019.
I live and work near Schuylerville with my spouse Bob, 1 puppy, 2 cats, and a small flock of chickens.
Lyell’s Artist Statement
I think of my work outside of spoken language or anything that would make narrative sense to a viewer. Though there are constant strands of reference in my head - memory of a place or a circumstance, my limited knowledge but expansive awe of the universe, general conditions of human existence (loneliness, wonder, humor, absurdity) - I’m not interested in weaving those strands together. Rather, the interactions and collisions, elegant, awkward, bent, or crooked reflect the inchoate qualities of life that feel authentic to me.
About Card
I began my journey in blacksmithing at the Adirondack Folk School shortly after it opened in 2010. While taking a weekend of cardiology call, my wife, Ellen took a class there, as I’d pretty much not be around at all. She brought home 4 fire tending tools that she forged under the tutelage of Michael McCarthy. I was immediately smitten. We subsequently took several classes together; her interest waned, while mine intensified. I continued to take 3-5 classes each year, between April and October. I forged my own hammers, chisels, tongs and calipers during that period.
I forged small items occasionally in my garage in Saratoga Springs with a small gas forge, but was limited in what I could accomplish. I worked at the blacksmith shop at SAW on a few occasions. Essentially anything can be made by combining tapering, bending, flattening, upsetting, punching, drifting, forge-welding and other techniques, all of which can be accomplished without machines. After semi-retiring in 2018, I had more time to pursue my craft and was able to establish a studio in an old elementary school building in Rock City Falls, where I still work. Being able to work more frequently allowed me to improve my skills more rapidly, work with a traditional coal forge and other antique tools and thereby expand my possibilities.
Card’s Artist Statement
I am mechanically minded (the heart is a pump) and am drawn to blacksmithing for that and other reasons. I love working with a blank piece of iron or steel and forging it into a useful shape that I see in my mind’s eye, using an anvil, fire, a hammer and a variety of hand tools. I feel connected to the blacksmiths I've met and the ones who came before me, especially those who have had their hands on my 115 year old Buffalo Forge and my 100-250 year old anvils; that is 3-8 generations. Blacksmiths are great recyclers. I’ve created useful objects from a farmer friend’s discarded tiller blades, wrought iron cemetery fence pickets, coil and leaf springs from junked cars, giving them a new life. I feel a part of a long, almost romantic tradition.