Tony Higdon

From large scale metal to soft felt.

For the past twenty years, Tony Higdon has been actively working as a sculptor. His work centered on large-scale metal mixed media sculptures that focused on elegant design, unified materials, and playful interaction. Some of these were toylike, whimsical, and familiar objects that spoke to the imaginary world of childhood and play. Interaction, even if implied, was always a big part of his work.

People are surprised by his pivot from forged metal to handmade hats; but the two practices are creatively linked. When forging metal to create forms, fire, heat, and water are used to work the material into shapes and structures. Forging felt and leather is a similar process. Heat and steam must be applied to the material to make it bend, fold, and take on shape. In a sense, hats are small, intimate sculptures that can be whimsical, playful, and part of a person’s story.

Handmade hat making is just an extension of Higdon’s earlier impulse to make art. While crafting something that is really an extension of someone else’s personality, he loves the conversation with the individuals who commission these hats as much as the process of working with his materials. Copper, nails, burnt felt, patterned fabric, feathers, bear hide, and deer pelts are just some of the items that one could find at the T Higdon Studio. – reviewer, Doreen Maloney