Starting June 6, catch Bassett’s work on display at the Visitor’s Center in Lewisburg
Carroll Bassett’s artistic history:
Prior to moving to West Virginia in 1997 I had a very active career in the arts. From 1977 to 1981 I worked as Studio Coordinator for Albert Paley in Rochester, NY, who I met at an intensive workshop at the Peters Valley School for Crafts. This was a very formative period for me during which I worked on several important commissions of Albert’s design, most notably a set of very large gates for the Senate Chambers in Albany, NY.
After moving back to New Jersey I established a small studio producing forged metal items and sculpture. After receiving two awards at a show in Short Hills, NJ, I became acquainted with two high end decorators working in Manhattan, NY. For the next roughly ten years these two women kept me very busy with commissions ranging from thick glass topped tables and furniture to wall and free standing sculpture. This was an extremely profitable period for me but the culture of the very rich became philosophically harder to bear.
For a brief time, through contacts with other metalsmithers, I became involved in the restoration of the Statue of Liberty and the Ellis Island Restoration Project in NY Harbor. This association led to work on the restoration of the William Penn Sculpture atop city Hall in Philadelphia, PA. Working with the Philadelphia Museum of Arts conservator required that samples of the surface of the roughly 40 ton bronze sculpture be taken and the surface be photographed. Access for this work was through the hollow casting using single rope techniques I learned from the caving community in NJ since the statue was about 550 feet above ground. That phase completed, the statue was surrounded by scaffolding allowing detailed restoration of its entire surface.
This introduction to the caving community on this last project brought me to West Virginia and Greenbrier County to explore and map caves and subsequently to purchase my farm in Friars Hill, WV. Having been spoiled by the economics of the New York arts scene, I began developing tools for the caving and rope rescue community as well as developing tools to break rock to further the entrance to caves and assist with cave rescue problems.
About six years ago I was introduced to the wood turning community here and began producing turned objects at my shop in Friars Hill, WV. What you see here is the result of those efforts.
My work is available at my studio at 8362 Friars Hill Road, Friars Hill WV 24938, or by calling 304-646-4080.
