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Iron Woman

Photo courtesy Alyssa Ollive.
Photo courtesy Alyssa Ollive.

Conquering metal takes resolve, patience and skill – Alyssa Ollive, senior metals major and honors student, possesses all three.

I see her hands are blackened – the mark of a serious metalworker – as she sits at a coffee shop near ASU's north design building.

“I cleaned them today for you,” she says, laughing. But the black on her hands remains, a reminder of the time and effort Ollive dedicates to her craft.

She has been applying patina – the finishing touch – to several of the pieces featured in her current exhibition, "Fabled Beauty." This is just one of the many steps in creating a finished metal art piece.

“There are only three of us graduating this year in metals,” she says, and points out that many hopefuls drop the major early due to its high cost and time commitment. As she expounds on the various issues and nuances associated with the craft, it's clear that she is an expert.

Besides the inherent challenges of working with metal, Ollive often must explain what she “does” to others.

“I hate explaining to people what I do,” she jokes. “They say, ‘You do what?’ Well, I make metal things.”

She must also seek out opportunities for honors credit, a challenge for arts majors, she says.

“I have to find a way to get honors credit while doing art, and there aren’t a lot of honors art [classes],she says. "So I have to do a lot of independent study.”

Surprisingly, this mistress-of-metal has not always been an artist. In fact, she only fell in love with her medium after taking a lower-division metalworking course her freshman year.

This is difficult to believe after seeing the several incredible pieces she is wearing – including a bracelet formed into organic, realistic branches.

Growing up as a left-brain individual, the latently talented Ollive now finds herself in studio for upwards of 16 hours every week.

“I was math and science heavy all through high school. I never took an art class until I got [to college]. That was my rebellion phase,” she says. Of course, it comes as no surprise that the rebellious Ollive chose one of the most stubborn mediums to tame.

And tamed it she has. "Fabled Beauty" will showcase intricately designed pieces with roots in medieval fairytales.

“It’s sort of a gothic-dark look at feminine beauty," she says. "This sort of decadence and decay.” For Ollive, metal is the perfect way to illustrate decay and the quest for beauty; she feels that it has a “mind of its own, ”aging and taking on new characteristics.

She also strives to create pieces which are wearable works of art.

“I wanted to create pieces that were beautiful, but had a darker edge to them – but also that were wearable and high quality as jewelry pieces,” she says. She will sell her pieces after the exhibition, though she jokes that certain pieces may be difficult to part with.

“It fell into place. This is how I work, and I’ve been waiting for this” Ollive says, smiling and touching her richly colored rose-motif necklace.

 

“Fabled Beauty” opened Monday, and will run through Friday in ASU’s Step Gallery. The reception for the event takes place Tuesday from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m.

 

Contact the reporter at cbkelly@asu.edu


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