Burlington arts council recognizes sculptor and UVM graduate Kat Clear

Local metal sculptor Kat Clear sits across from me in an office lined with clay Solo cups, prints and metal tools.  Monitoring a sculpture class in Williams Hall, she is much more than a substitute of knowledge, having recently been awarded the Barbara Smail Award.

Awarded by Burlington City Arts on Jan. 14, Kat will receive $1,000 and use of their facilities for one year in honor of the late local artist Barbara Smail.

One student enters the room with a small metal spring clamp collected from a dumpster. "I don't know how to cut this," she says.

Clear does, and quickly jumps to a toolbox filled with neat metal cutters and finds the right one. It cuts through perfectly and the student is on her way to sculpting something out of  "junk."

Not long ago, Clear began her academic career as an artist at UVM, graduating in 2001.  Working with Barbara Zucker, Meg McDevitt and Kathleen Schneider, she quickly found her niche in three-dimensional art.

Ten years later, Clear's art installations are easily accessible to the public, and chances are you've marveled at a few.

Clear sources from steel and scrap yards to create "leather" soft couches, local business signs, mermaids and hardy pinup girls in her welding studio.

From the bike rack, whose giant metal lock — hopefully — deters bicycle thieves on Pearl Street to the Davis Center's sign of "welcome" in 20 languages, her work has become a part of the Burlington community — a relationship the Barbara Smail Award recognizes and admires.

In Fletcher Allen, Clear's installation "Fabric of Life" — a 37-foot quilt draping down from a ceiling high sewing machine — provides comfort to patients.

These "sewn" together squares of copper and steel are so immense in structure she chartered a plane to photograph it.

Her family was supportive of her endeavors tinkering with sculpture as a kid, though she was hesitant in her desire to work with tools.

"I played with material I could work with in my bedroom, but I was just trying to fit in … it wasn't cool to play with tools."

The gender boundaries that say boys play with tools and girls with dolls is something Clear works to overcome within the youth community.

Clear is a mentor with VT Works for Women's Rosie's Girls, a summer day camp that empowers girls to explore their abilities and build innate confidence skills.  

"Rosie's Girls focuses on wood working, electrical tools, alternative tools at an age where they notice things that boys do and things that girls do, to help them recognize that there isn't any boundary," Clear said.

We can all recall that tender middle-school age, where girls start to break each other down instead of build them up. Clear talked about how socialization doesn't create a support system for them or hands-on skills.

Not aware that metal was her medium of choice until her junior year, a similar form of experiential learning at a Californian welding program was Clear's moment of realization.

It is in these experiences, which Clear had wished for at a younger age, that we realize our strengths and passions, ignoring the external pressures of society.  As she said, everyone needs a practice, like running or yoga to quiet the mind.

"[What I like about] metal being tough, in my other courses making sculpture I was always banging things around," Clear said. "I needed something to be a little tougher than me."

A common thread behind her art, Clear's creative work in metal and dedication to enriching the Vermont community with it, will certainly outlast us all.