The Question - What is your Hope?

"I would like to make sculpture that would rise from the water and tower in the air that carried conviction and vision that had not existed before that rose from a natural pool of clear water to sandy shores with rocks and plants that men could view as natural without reverence or awe but to whom such things were natural because they were statements of peaceful pursuit and joined in the phenomenon of life...

I want to show the wonder of man, that flowing water, rocks, clouds, vegetation, have for the man in peace who glories in existence It will say that in peace, we have time that a man has been fed, has worked, that hands and minds and tools and material made a symbol to the elevation of vision"

David Smith, American Sculptor

From the text of David Smith by David Smith - abridged

Born In Cleveland, Ohio in 1951 he grew up helping his father in his architectural sheet metal shop. His father Joseph Cellura , a union sheet metalworker, specialized in difficult sheet metal fabrications and copper roofs, domes and cupolas.

He went on to study English, Journalism and Philosophy at Kent State University from 1969-1973. Upon graduation he entered the teaching profession, teaching at both Cleveland suburban schools and inner city children at an Upward Bound program.

When visiting a college roommate in Storrs, CT. that had taken up the obscure trade of blacksmithing, he became fascinated by the ancient craft. After apprenticeships at the CT. shop and one in Ohio he settled near Medina, Ohio to produce hand forged ornamental ironwork. Cellura’s enthusiasm for the art of blacksmithing led him to found the Ohio Artist -Blacksmith Assoc. now known as SOFA in 1977.

After studying art at the Cooper School of Art he attended a workshop at the Cleveland Institute of Art and assisted internationally known metalsmith Albert Paley in a blacksmithing demonstration. After being offered an apprenticeship at the Paley Studio Cellura moved to Rochester, NY and worked as Paley’s personal studio assistant from 1978-1980.

After receiving the NEA Grant in Metal in 1979 and working on many large architectural ironwork and sculptural commissions with Paley he formed his own company Metalmorphosis Studios in 1980.

Cellura continued his metalworking education by studying as an assistant to the top metalworkers in the world in various workshop opportunities.

Working with artist Stuart Hill of England he developed a line of hydraulically compressed tubing and structural steel parts for use in the decorative metals field. He has also has worked with many of the noted metal artists of Europe; Simon Benneton of Italy, Manfred Bredhol of Germany and Serge Marchal of France. His metalwork and sculpture have been exhibited in major galleries and museums throughout the United States and England.

Cellura’s artistic concepts and design philosophy can be summarized as a “synthesis of the human heart, hand and energies focused in materials with the sacred geometry of the natural world. In studying the natural world we learn the beauty, the balance, and the function of our world and ourselves. Through our creative expressions we become one with the Creator and are rewarded with both self-understanding and a respectful knowledge of our place in the natural order.”