Lanny Bergner

I first started working with metal mesh in 1983. That was my final year of Graduate School at Tyler School of Art. Back then I was working with aluminum insect screening and making all these suspended organic forms out of strips of screening. It wasn’t until about four years ago that I began torch treating stainless steel mesh to create patterns and drawings on the mesh. This has opened up a whole new world for me. Prior to torch burning, structure and process was the primary driver of my work.

I included a few photos of me making “Columnar,” of one of my torch treated stainless steel works. It was made out of 15 sheets of stainless steel mesh that I first sprayed with lacquer (the lacquer gives the mesh a bronze-like look), and then I burned the pattern/drawing into the mesh using a propane torch. I can control the tone by how close I hold the flame to the mesh and how quickly I pass it over the surface and paying close attention to how orange the metal gets. I treat the torching process much like drawing or painting. I have never been that much of a pencil and charcoal drawer. In the past I would draw for brief stints and then I would always be lured back into 3-D works. But, since flame drawing is such a dynamic medium I have been increasingly pulled into the drawing/painting world and I just love it. Now torch work is an integral part of my art.

I also use silicone and glass frit in my work. One of the photos shows me pressing clear silicone through one of “Columnar” torch treated mesh squares. Once the silicone is pressed through the mesh it takes on a bead-like appearance. I use glass frit as a color element. In “Columnar” I use it to surface Smoothfoam spheres. I first coat the spheres with clear silicone and then press the frit into the silicone.

After exploring mesh for over 30 years I still feel like I have hardly scratched the surface of the material’s creative potential. One piece just leads to the next. Currently, I am working on large vessel forms for a show this September at Snyderman-Works Galleries in Philadelphia. Most of these pieces will be made out of heavier gage stainless steel mesh, that way the vessel forms will be strong and self-supporting. I’m also introducing more color into my work by mixing powdered pigment with clear silicone (I should have some images of this body of work by conference time). Creativity just keeps marching on and I keep enjoying the journey.

Lanny Bergner, 2014 Yuma Presenter

Click here for Lanny's Website