Local artist displays metal mania

An insatiable appetite to create, coupled with intense mental and physical effort, are the driving forces behind Holly Gittlein, metal sculptor from Wasilla, whose art show opens on Saturday at the Town Square Gallery in the Carrs Mall, in Wasilla.

Manipulating metal is how she channels her energy into a source of power, which starts with the raw material, moves into the crafted form, and exudes through the subject matter into the final piece. She creates spontaneously.

“My favorite pieces are generally not planned nor sketched. They come easily and quickly,” she explains.

On her website, hollygittlein.com, she writes, “Metal sculpting requires an entire commitment of mind, soul and body…After I finally finish a piece I have welded myself physically to the item. I have been burnt, scratched, pulled a muscle, singed my hair, put my mark. Traces of my DNA cling to each of my masterpieces.”

Gittlein constructs a variety of items, from functional furniture pieces to free-standing courtyard monuments, sometimes bigger than life itself.

“I weigh in at about a buck fifty-five, and have to use everything I have to get some of my larger sculptures to move,” Gittlein said.

About living in Alaska, Gittlein says, “I have four uncles, three aunts, a bus load of cousins, grandmother, brother, eight chickens, a dog, several fish and an enormous extended family up here.” One Alaska uncle built a “Chop Shop” from materials off his farm, and this became Gittlein’s place to do “big boy work” for people who needed welding. Her favorite haven now is her new shop, built in 2009, next to her home.

Here Gittlein “has lots of projects going at once,” where she will “work to a certain stage, then let it sit a few days” while she starts another; she finishes still another, letting very few pieces sit for long.

Often there is “the smell of hot metal, purging…into water to cool the piece…letting the steam fill the environment.” In addition there is the “old rusty banged up stuff” laying around inside and outside, waiting to become crucial piece molded by in her hands. Some metal pieces are seasoning under the snow, developing character for future art.

“Metal allows me to be spontaneous, free and fun,” says Holly. And this fun freedom spills over onto the magnificent design on the shop floor, displaying octopus arms as if intertwining with your feet as you walk. (View pictures at hollygittlein.com.)

Being self-taught in metal means she has never taken any courses, but thinks she might “at some time down the road” proclaiming an interest in forging and casting.

Her formal training is in biology, at the University of Northern Colorado, leading her to a job for a year in Washington state, at the Columbia River, and several years on the Aleutian Peninsula with Alaska Fish and Game, both positions as a fisheries biologist.

Participating in a student exchange program during college, she traveled to Costa Rico where she met a wildlife artist. He was studying birds, while she was studying turtles. Ramiel Papish became her mentor, and together, they produced a field guide Bird Manuel. Biology and art were amalgamated for her under his influence.

Having been awarded a Rotary Ambassador Scholarship in 2005, Gittlein journeyed to Fiji where she did research as a scientist. During the winter, she returns there, three to six months each year, working for the Rotary Pacific Water Life Foundation that provides safe drinking water and waste sanitation to rural communities, so “people don’t dump waste and kill coral reef” she explains.

Gittlein built a metal sculpture at the University of the South Pacific with another artist. She also wrote grants for new projects in biology. Now she is commissioned to build a fountain sculpture for “Kila World” an eco-tourism center in Fiji.

Receiving “1 percent for Art Awards” is not easy, but Gittlein has a long list of these accomplishments including sculptures at Larson Elementary, Meadow Lakes Elementary, Teeland Middle School, and Su-Valley High School, in Talkeetna. When asked about her success in this area she says that she “applied for a lot of these, and you never know.”

Having been in a car accident on the Seward Highway, near Girdwood in 2009, Holly was forced to use a wheel chair for five months. Though recovery still requires physical therapy twice a week, she is back into the metal full steam, spending lots of hours in her shop on the cutting edge of metal.

Recently Holly was bestowed an honorable commission to develop four original sculptures for Elmendorf Air Force Base’s new Educational Professional Facility, which will house an auditorium and classrooms. Two of the pieces are the symbols, past and current, signifying the United States Air Force.

The “Hap Arnold Wings” is the older symbol, named after the Five Star General who was instrumental in the formation of the Air Force, after breaking off from the Army. Gittlein says, “I added my own flare to the design in a very subtle manner” maintaining the integrity of the symbol.

Another piece for Elmendorf that is nearly completed is 8-foot long and includes a huge American Flag, with blue and red glass, and white metal. She describes the “big eagle layered on top and coming out” over the flag, and “flying toward the mountains and the waves.”

When using glass “to add color and texture” her hands “are lacerated” and she justifies why she goes through a lot of bandages.

The fourth piece for Elmendorf, called the “Missing Man Formation,” brought tears to her eyes during the research phase. She says that she cried when seeing U-Tube videos, studied for accuracy and inspiration as she developed her design concept.

This monumental piece, installed already at Elmendorf, is 18-feet long, and has F-22 Jets in a V-formation shooting through the sky with the fifth plane veering off, while a copper moon hangs over Pioneer Peak, and Sleeping Lady lies in the background. The Kink River below is filled with fish swimming around searching for the horizon. Gittlein speaks of the “straight lines of the jets being so somber with the beautiful nature scene.”

What distinguishes Gittlein’s metal sculpture from others is partially style, where she uses elaborate compositions of swirls, waves and hard edges, reminiscent of the Art Nouveau and Bauhaus combined. The other noteworthy aspect is her celebratory attitude that bombards the space that the art inhabits with vibrant energy and fortitude that only someone who really loves metal can provide.

Suzanne Bach teaches art at Mat-Su College.