Shaping molten metal into art

Art uses a variety of different mediums to evoke an emotional response in the viewer. One of its forms involves fire and molten metal and is certainly not for the faint of heart. Texas State University has a metals program in their fine arts department and Distinguished Professor Emeritus Beverly Penn is teaching art students to utilize a torch in order to make precious metals even more appealing.

Penn’s love for metals began during a semester-long visit to the University of El Paso where she took her first metals class.

“That’s when I realized that metals was the material that I felt I could be most creative and expressive in,” Penn said. “And that was a turning point for me.”