Nol Putnam has been a blacksmith for over 40 years. He started his career by learning to create ‘house jewelry.' In 1982 he began building large architectural commissions for private homes across the US. His most important work is the three gates that he made and designed for the burial crypt of the Washington National Cathedral in 1995. After 2002, he primarily focused on creating forged sculpture. ‘I am drawn first to the iron by the physicality of the work. To have now the knowledge to take a bar of iron and with hear and hammer turn it into the design in my head is simply delicious. The dance round the anvil, and the bigger the piece the greater the dance...the dance, the movement, the creative noticing between one hammer blow and the next, the manipulation of the iron on the anvil; the movement of iron from forge to anvil; the intensity of the heat; the focusing of all senses on that precise piece in that precise moment is quite simply glorious. Everything is preparation for that moment and repeated moments...all urging, arguing, cajoling, pushing and promising the completion of the work. This also is a dance. Iron must flow and move as in a symphony. In one stage it is malleable movement. A piece will move from thick to thin; bars opened and passed through; organic; always flowing as if drawn from the molten center of the earth. Perhaps our deepest connection comes from the sea, the iron in the sea linked to our blood as eons ago we crawled from the sea. Our spiritual link which begins with birth; which begins with water, fire, earth and air, the most basic tools of a smith. Or, more simply, I have been a studio artist since 1972 and will probably continue until the day I die... ' - Nol Putnam, May 2014