Flaming hot metal art featured as Art & Scroll Studio begins 2025

By Shelley Werner

(Calgary) – “I create cool classical ironwork from the inferno of the forge,” says artist Craig Kaviar.

The new year opening episode of the Art and Scroll Studio zoom series will feature an award-winning artist of magical metal work, kicking off their 30th artist in their 5th year of programming. The episode will take viewers into the world of three-dimensional art infused with meaning and purpose.

Sculptor/Blacksmith Craig Kaviar has been creating functional art at his studio in Louisville, Kentucky for the past 30 years. In addition to artistic handrails, Kaviar has created signature sculpture for Norton Hospital including: an Apple Tree representing good health and a copper/bronze fountain in the courtyard Owensboro Hospital Complex. His work also adorns the Downtown Louisville Public Library, as well as many churches, homes, and business throughout the region.

Kaviar is among Kentucky, USA’s most prominent artists. His work was featured on the Home and Garden TV network show, “Modern Masters,” and has appeared in a number of books illustrating the art of ironwork. His work was featured at the World’s Fair in Japan, located in the United States Pavilion. In 2000, the Sister Cities of Louisville program sent Kaviar on a cultural exchange to Mainz, Germany to celebrate Johann Gutenberg’s 600th anniversary. In commemoration, he created a three-dimensional Gothic “G” featuring a carved portrait of Gutenberg.

In addition to working with glowing hot temperatures to shape unyielding materials as if they were clay, Craig Kaviar also shares this mystical experience by teaching others. He works with apprentices on a daily basis, and teaches occasional classes at his studio. While he is influenced by contemporary sculpting giants Diego Giacometti and Alexander Calder, his process derives from ancient metalworking methods. His work is a combination of elegant lines and hand-wrought texture. The organic adornments of birds and leaves are often showcased in his art, particularly his landscape architecture and glass-topped tables and chairs.

Kaviar also repurposed his tools: the 200 pound Chambersburg Air Hammer that was originally built to be carried on a World War II battleship and a 200 ton press purchased from the Charlestown Ammunition Plant. Kaviar stated,”I feel that by reusing this machinery of war for the making of artwork, I am in a small way helping to turn swords into plowshares.”

Kaviar is an alumnus of Tufts University with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree and has studied at the Boston Museum School. In addition to passionately creating metalwork for over 30 years, he also owns Kaviar Gallery, located on the same premises as the forge, in the Clifton neighborhood of Louisville.

Guns to Gardens Louisville is an interfaith group seeking ways to address the growing problem of gun violence. The name Guns to Gardens reflects their goal of moving the American community from a gun culture to a life-giving culture, through activities that nurture peace and growth instead of violence.

Guns to Gardens Louisville is part of a growing movement that offers gun safe-surrender opportunities in more than a dozen states. Their events give people a way to get rid of unwanted guns safely and anonymously. The guns are dismantled by chop saws and turned into gardening tools, art, and jewelry.

Other projects of Guns to Gardens Louisville include a community book read, screening of films about gun violence, and advocacy and educational opportunities to increase gun safety and prevent gun violence.

The Louisville blacksmith isn’t naïve. He doesn’t expect to stamp out gun violence in his country with the dozen guns he’s already repurposed. Kaviar alone can’t stop the 163 non-fatal criminal shootings that Louisville Metro Police Department has already tracked in a year. Heating a single gun barrel at 3,000 degrees, reshaping it with a hammer, and transforming it into a tool won’t stop the 74 homicides that have already happened this year. Kaviar’s part of this project is small, but there’s a deep symbolism that comes with molding metal into something that’s used to grow rather than kill.

“I think we have way too many guns and way too many deaths,” Kaviar said. “And although this is mostly symbolic, and it isn’t going to really get the most dangerous guns off the street, it is making a statement.” ‘No questions asked’ A lot needed to happen before those bins full of gun parts arrived at his shop after Louisville’s first Guns to Gardens event. It took several months and careful planning for the Gun Violence Prevention Team, an interfaith group that started at Crescent Hill Presbyterian Church, to partner with Kaviar and get Louisville’s Guns to Garden program off the ground.

Craig will share his love for turning metal into meaning through the hot forge and his love for beautiful shapes that have interest and purpose.

Craig Kaviar will be the featured guest on Tuesday January 21 2025, 7:00 pm MST on Art and Scroll Studio, a live zoom series that celebrates the makers and creators of Judaic art.

For advance tickets for this virtual and free program please email: artandscrollstudio@gmail.com