Philip F. Kaufman

     Art Statement

Metal sculpting has been an avocation for Philip since 1972.  When his career

as an aerospace engineer with the Naval Air Development Center in Warminster, Pennsylvania, ended in 1994, he turned professional.  Primarily self-taught and self-motivated, Philip received grant funding in 1995 to study blacksmithing at Peter's Valley Craft Center, New Jersey.  Philip uses blacksmithing techniques along with oxyacetylene and MIG welding to produce his sculptures.

Philip has received numerous awards in the Philadelphia region including the Fidelity Juried Award, and awards from the Abington Art Center and the Cheltenham Art Center.  He has exhibited at the Bucks County Sculpture Show, Artforms Gallery, Markheim Art Center, and The Woodmere Art Museum.

Philip's sculptures range from small whimsical pieces to contemporary interpretations and commissioned work for individuals and organizations.  He generally uses mild steel because he enjoys beginning with a rigid medium, heating and re-forming it like soft clay, shaping it to reveal its new, sculpted form -- its new life.

In spite of the heat, grime, burns, bruises and physical exhaustion, Philip loves the process of creating and testing the limits of imagination and concept.  His unending passion is the pursuit of his next creation.