Joel Washing

Joel R Washing is an award winning sculptor and welder living in Toledo, Ohio. Joel left the filmmaking world in 2010 when he discovered a passion for welding. In the interim he took sculptural welding classes at the Toledo Museum of Art and earned an associates degree in welding from Owens Community College. Joel is a member of the Toledo Area Sculptors Guild and the American Welding Society.

In addition to sculpture making, Joel manages a sculpture class each year, administered by QSI Fabrication, Inc. The program teaches students from the Toledo School for the Arts to conceive, design, and build monumental sculptures from steel. The students build skills in industrial design, welding, time management, and artistic aesthetics.

ARTIST STATEMENT

“I have a need to create physical, tangible objects. Ideas and emotions are translated from mind to world through my fingers, hands, and arms. Like the life sustaining need to take in breath, I must create to stave off emotional death.

“Geometrical shapes and patterns hold great interest for me. Linear planes and crisp angles impose a certain order in a world filled with chaos. Geometry describes the beauty inherent to all things on our planet, in our solar system, and beyond.

“I primarily work with steel. I’m attracted to this material because of its physical qualities and characteristics. Steel is all at once tactile, solid, smooth, rigid, flexible, permanent, and malleable.”

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