In the bronze sculpting class, students who have no fear in pouring the 2,150 degree liquid bronze are known as “fire-eaters.”

Using many ancient methods to make bronze sculptures, these students not only create works of art, but also build up their self-confidence.

“You’re not only learning the technique of modeling, casting and chasing, but you also get a sense of accomplishment in each little project you finish and every success in art,” fine arts major Dane Heathcock said.

“It helps to better your morale, your self-esteem and your self-resolve,” he said.

Heathcock’s full-body sculpture entitled “Litany” is now on display outside of the sculpting room in the Art Building.

Sculpting is a profound medium

Taking the class, Heathcock said, has helped him develop technique and a greater love for sculpting.

“Sculpture is a very profound medium,” Heathcock said.

Fine arts major Marianne Avila also enjoys the empowerment and sense of permanence that creating a sculpture in bronze provides.

“You get really confident,” Avila said. “It’s a work you really want to preserve, but in the form of a really strong mold.”

Heavy physical labor needed

The class, which is taught by Russ McMillin, is an advanced sculpting class in which students utilize the skills they learned in the basic sculpting class about making a mold and casting it in wax to create solid bronze sculptures.

“You’re starting with something basic, just like a lump of clay,” McMillin said. “At the end you wind up with something that most people can recognize as being a work of art.”

Instead of creating ceramic shell sculptures as they did in basic sculpture classes, students pour hot liquid bronze into molds that range from small figurines to life-sized torsos.

The weight of the bronze and the labor that goes into creating the sculpture often involves very heavy physical labor.

“It involves hard work and I love the challenge,” Avila said.

She is currently perfecting her sculpture of a life-size female torso.

Avila believes that because of the hard physical work, the class contains more men than women which makes her feel even more proud to create bronze sculptures.

“It’s really impressive to see a female artisan working in bronze,” Avila said. “It’s really inspiring.”

McMillin, who has been teaching the lass for three semesters, enjoys watching the creativity that flowers from students after they mastered the complicated basics of sculpture making.

“They all have certain requirements based on building skills, but within those requirements the students have a lot of creative liberties,” McMillin said.

McMillin said he also believes that students can apply what they learn in the class to their everyday lives.

Approach to life learned in class

“They really pick up a lot of different kinds of knowledge that can be applied not only to sculpture, but to a can-do sort of approach to life and they also learn about delayed gratification, which I think is an important skill or muscle that is lacking today,” McMillin aid.

Because students must work so hard, McMillin thinks that they appreciate their final product even more.

“These are really labors of love by the time they get done with them,” McMillin said.

Discipline is highly required

To do well in the class, students must be willing to pu tin a lot of effort.

“It is not necessarily for every person because it is actually a lot of hard work and takes a lot of discipline,” McMillin said.

“But I think they really respond to it because they get a sense of empowerment and accomplishment,” he said.

While some students in the class hope to become professional artists, others see sculpting as a hobby.

Some are hoping that the class will help them decide whether or not to pursue art as a profession.

“It really gives you a good idea if art is something you really want to do or something you just want to dabble in,” Heathcock said. “Either way you’re successful.”

Because Heathcock is pursuing art as a profession, he works very hard in the class; but McMillin said that all of the other students put just as much effort into their artwork.

“Whether they’re more career oriented or hobby oriented, they’re really serious about what they’re doing so we’re all very focused on it,” McMillin said.

Some are also int eh class because they believe that McMillin is a great instructor.

“My teacher (McMillin) is a very good motivator,” Avila said. “I would take every single class that Russ is teaching because he is amazing and a lot of students are here because he knows how to delegate so well.”

Avila said she is also taking the class because she enjoys the helpful atmosphere that it provides.

Students help each other in class

“There are a lot of students that are really good and the class is amazing because you cannot feel the normal atmosphere of competition,” Avila said.

“Everybody helps each other out all the time,” she said.

Heathcock, who is among the mor e advanced artists in the class, often spends more time helping others create their artwork than he spends time on creating his own artwork.

“If you are helping others, they are helping you,” Heathcock said.

“In learning how to help others, you learn how to help yourself and that’s the environment that we’re given here,” he said.