One campus RSO is helping students and community members showcase their passion for the arts.

The Critical Forum Sculpture Club, better known as C4 Sculpture, is an RSO which provides students machinery and support to help design new pieces of art. Sculptures can be made from just about anything: from wood or clay sculpting to casting and fabricating metals, resins and plastics, and Jillian Thompson, a graduate student in sculpture from Cambridge, Neb., said the computer numerical control systems members can access have been available to the group for several years.

“(The machine is) like a computerized router … you make a drawing on the computer and put it into this router and it will cut out your design,” she said. “It not only cuts but it will carve as well, and that’s pretty cool, a lot of people have been working with that.”

Advertisement

Thompson, who has been a member of the club nearly two years, said the group does not put limitations on the artwork members create. Aside from the use of machines for construction, one may find that in the creation of something much smaller, or in any case larger, easier to use the delicateness of hands.

“We don’t really have any limitations on what you can and cannot use, any size,” Thompson said. “Sculpture is like the ultimate art … because it can be anything.”

Thompson said the group is setting up several showcases for their artwork. One show, set to occur between November 11 and November 15, will take place at the Glove Factory’s Surplus Galley. The RSO will also have a show in the spring, but Thompson said she isn’t sure of a date.

“I am really interested in the group and interested in the opportunities for us,” Thompson said, “I plan to seek out opportunities for us to show at different locations in different towns. I’ve been talking to a gallery in Cape Girardeau, Missouri trying to get in there.”

The group will also welcome curator Terry Suhre to juror a show in the spring.

“(Suhre) is the art director at Gallery 21 in St. Louis which is a pretty prestigious place,” Thompson said. “It’s pretty cool that he’s coming down. I’m excited about that.”

Roger Alan Moore, the club’s newly elected vice president and a senior from Naperville studying sculpture and ceramics, said the shows aren’t just reserved for students.

Advertisement*

“The public can pay and be a part of the show,” he said. “We usually do one show a semester and we have different categories, community, undergrad and graduate students and each of those categories have their own first and second places.”

The group also sponsors seminars and trips outside of Carbondale to help members hone their skills.

“We go to St. Louis every year to pour iron at this place called 6 Mile Sculpture Work,” she said. “We really promote that to our group members and they can come with us. This Friday we’re having a photography workshop and we’re bringing somebody in from St. Louis that’s going to give a workshop on how to photograph your work.”

The public can enter their own pieces for around $5 to show as many works as they want. To simply observe is free. There will be paintings and 2D artwork, as well as 3D sculptures.

The club costs a fee of $30 per year, or $25 a semester, and it can provide students a broader knowledge of the sculpture medium.

“C4 is…for students to be able to have opportunities that maybe they wouldn’t have: to show [art] in different locations and to work with other artists, and we really try to bring in people from outside [of the club] to work with us as well. It is a sculpture group, but anybody can be a part of it.”

Dena Thomas, a teaching assistant from Hays, Kan., who has served as both president and secretary of the RSO, said she appreciates the experiences she has gained from the club.

“I enjoyed the opportunities to do things in a professional manner and being able to work with other artists,” she said.