Sculptor Dan McGuire: The stuff that matters
Released: November 13, 2003
Sunday drivers out for a leisurely day roll slowly past Dan McGuire’s yard in rural Dane County. They crane their necks to get a better view of the parade of metal clown heads, a garden of painted valves, towering pink and blue pipes, and a car named Lillian whose every inch is covered with psychedelic knick knacks.
Behind these works of art stand McGuire’s fully operational foundry and kiln next to his studio crammed with salvage parts and a pretty blue house he built himself.
“I’m a jack-of-all-trades,” admits McGuire who has taught mixed media sculpture at University of Wisconsin-Whitewater since 1998. He earned his art degree here in 1979, then went on to graduate school at Southern Illinois University- Carbondale for his master’s degree in ceramics. He taught at Brescia University in Kentucky in the 1980s, then moved back to Wisconsin with his family where he “made pots for a living” at Rockdale Union Stoneware and later did other ceramic design and prototype work.
Yet McGuire prefers the diversity of sculpture, using “stuff” that may be other people’s junk, but serves as his treasure.
“I get materials from farmers, scrap yards, the county dump or, if I can’t find it, I cast it myself,” he says. His subject matter arises from the “stuff” of every day life, like going fishing with his son.
Last summer McGuire designed a large whimsical piece depicting a lure chasing a fish, which was displayed at an outdoor sculpture exhibit called “Wisconsin Presents.” He was one of 15 Wisconsin artists selected to participate. The 20-foot project took him all summer to make and was unveiled the opening night of the Harley-Davidson Festival along the parade route at Wisconsin Lutheran College in Milwaukee. The plan is to eventually display the fish-and-lure on the UW-Whitewater campus.
For McGuire, teaching art at the college level is a kick. He enjoys the “fresh thinking” of his students and often invites them out to his home to work and socialize. Their inexperience with metal and wood can be a challenge, so he takes time to carefully demonstrate the power tools.
“To test students at the end of the unit I tell them to hold up their hands and I ask ‘how many fingers?’” McGuire grins. He adds, “It’s great to work at a campus with a strong tradition in art and the nicest foundry in the state. And the people I work with, like Charlie Olson and Karl Borgeson, have been not only mentors but great friends.”
- Jane Provorse,provorsj@uww.edu
