Precious Botanicals:
Recent Metalwork by Sue Amendolara

An elegant and exquisite exhibition by the region's most outstanding metalsmith, Sue Amendolara, was on display in the ground floor galleries. Highlighting a variety of functional hollowware and jewelry, Amendolara uses precious metals to create one-of-a-kind pieces. She applies a variety of metalsmithing techniques from forging to casting, enabling intricate and ornate designs. An Associate Professor of jewelry and metals at Edinboro University, Amendolara has explored many tropical areas of the world in search of exotic plant life, which is the basis of much of her work. Photographic details of some of these unusual plants as well as examples of different metalsmithing processes were included in the exhibit.

Awarded the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts and the Mid Atlantic/National Endowment for the Arts Fellowships, Amendolara has exhibited in many states across the U.S. and has her work featured of in a number of publications. She received her B.F.A. from Miami University of Ohio and her M.F.A. from Indiana University and currently resides in Edinboro with her husband and two children.

The pioneer of a sand casting process which enables sculptors to create their own studio-sized foundries, Julius Schmidt is represented in the Museum collection by six cast iron and bronze works and an oversized drawing, all of which were on display in the front ground floor gallery. The works, created in the 1950s, are among the first cast by the artist using his innovative technique, which has been adopted by several generations of younger sculptors.

Schmidt, who was born 1923 in Stamford, Connecticut, has a long and distinguished career as a sculptor, innovator, and teacher. His teaching career spanned over forty years, heading the sculpture departments at Cranbrook Academy of Art and the University of Iowa. Although he retired from teaching in 1996, he continues to create sculpture at his studio in Iowa. His works are housed in many collections including the Museum of Modern Art in NY, the Art Institute of Chicago, and the Albright Knox Art Gallery in Buffalo.