Arrowmont Connections: Magda Gluszek takes over the Arrowmont Supply Store instagram this week

May 18, 2020

Arrowmont is a special community full of creative people – a family who know that coming together and making art is important. We talk a lot about the Arrowmont Experience – connecting through craft and community. That connection exists beyond physical proximity. It is in shared memories and new ideas. It lives in the friendships we make with each other. It grows when we learn and support one another.

Whether on campus or off, we are connected as members of the Arrowmont family. Over the next few weeks, we are going to share stories from our community of instructors, residents, and students in a new series, Arrowmont Connections.

Magda Gluszek is a 2008-2009 Arrowmont Artist-in-Residence and instructor. She earned an MFA from the University of Florida in 2008. Magda has been an artist resident artist in Greece, Spain and Italy. Her artwork has been exhibited nationally and internationally. She lives in Lakeside, Arizona, where she is on the art faculty and is gallery director at Northland Pioneer College. Her hikes and travels inspire her artwork, which start from 2D sketches and end in 3D figurative sculpture.

Magda describes her process:

One of the most important studio practices for me is when these 2D sketches get translated into 3D sketches, or maquettes. I can’t even overstate my love for maquette making. It allows me to alter a composition, plan a surface treatment, play with color and problem solve. Sometimes the idea that I have for a piece works well in my head, but just doesn’t transfer from my brain to a 2D sketch. Or, I have a really specific vision in a sketch and it doesn’t work the same way in a 3D form. Making the maquette helps me figure out what I need to change in order to create something engaging without pouring hours into a full-size sculpture that I would have ended up scrapping.

Magda was scheduled to teach figurative sculpture workshop, BODY LANGUAGE, at Arrowmont July 19 – 25, 2020. She wrote, “If we were together in a workshop today, we’d be filling the tabletops with little maquettes. I love seeing their gestural little forms, filled with potential.”

Although summer workshops have been cancelled due to the pandemic, fortunately Magda – and all of the instructors scheduled to teach – will be paid her teaching honorarium due to the generosity of an anonymous donor. She has a presence at Arrowmont through the Showcase Gallery, and this week (May 18 – 22, 2020), Magda is ‘taking over’ the Arrowmont Supply Store instagram (@arrowmont_supplystore).