Proving his metal

Suzie Harrison

His work captures the human form with exacting details, resulting

in a piece of art that one might think has taken decades of

experience to perfect.

In reality, Christopher Schulz has only been working at sculpting

for four years. The 28-year-old Laguna Beach native’s first art show

at [seven-degrees] opened on Wednesday.

Though his sculpting is a recently developed talent, Schulz has

been focused on art since he was a young boy.

“As soon as I was able to grab a crayon, that started my art. My

parents could tell what my gift was from an early age.”

In grade school, whenever there was something involving art he

would get involved. He nurtured his love for art for years, but after

spending a year in art school, Schulz became more concerned about

making a living.

“I thought that I needed to get a normal job. Art seemed like a

pipe dream. I was finding that the only jobs in art were graphics

arts, which started out great but I lost interest real quick.”

Things changed about four and a half years ago when he was working

as a tattoo artist and discovered clay and sculpting.

Schulz simply bought a piece of clay and started sculpting in his

spare time.

“I would sit there and sculpt little things out of clay and I fell

in love with it. It seemed to be what I was looking for a long time.”

The next step was that Schulz wanted to make his sculptures more

permanent. Because he always had a fascination with metal and had a

mechanical background, he had a natural attraction to working in the

medium.

“That’s where I took my sculpting. Now I incorporate a lot of

machinery into work these days,” said Schulz.

Schulz attended Saddleback Valley College and took a class in

casting metal.

“I loved it, got to pour my own metal and learned how the foundry

works. It just felt really primitive, really natural. This is how

they did this hundreds of years ago. It had some serious power to

it.”

Schulz credits some of his knowledge to sculptor Edmund Shumpert,

for whom he worked as an apprentice for several months.

“He taught me anatomy and the elements of sculpting, which gave me

the foundation of sculpting, which is really what I needed to further

it.”

Schulz also spent some time sharpening his skills by working with

a well-known sculptor in Monterey, before returning to Laguna Beach

almost three years ago.

Since then Schulz has been trying to put a body of work together.

“Putting together a first body of work, it really takes a long

time to do bronze.”

This last year he has been diligently working and sculpting every

day, spending time studying, researching and evolving into his future

works and sculpting.

He’s been an artist in residence at [seven-degrees] for about a

year.

He spoke with Dora Wexell director of sales and programs and Mark

Orgill managing partner.

“The artist in residence process is that we have four artists at

once here. There

are a lot of people who want to be here. It depends on what works,

what’s going on,

artist’s needs and timing,” Wexell said.

Schulz said he believes the best way to create is to not just sit

in a room with his imagination.

“For me to create work, I have to fill the well with ideas. A lot

of my research comes from researching people for figurative work. I

live life first. The art is secondary to me.”

“Chris is one of our

youngest artists. What he has been producing and continues to

produce for us he has a

very detailed oriented look when he sculpts. It’s really portrayed

in his final pieces,” said Allison Ahlfeldt [seven-degrees] marketing

director.

Schulz’s show continues through Wednesday.

Information: (949) 376-1555 or go online to www.seven-degrees.com

The gallery is at 891 Laguna Canyon Road.

* SUZIE HARRISON is a reporter for the Laguna Beach Coastline

Pilot. She may be reached at 494-4321.