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Walking into Arlene Abend’s home and studio in south Syracuse, nothing sticks out. At first glance, the home is just like the others around it bordering the Drumlins Country Club.

Outside of the unique art and sculptures scattered around the walls and ledges, the first floor doesn’t look much different than what would be expected of a 90-year-old’s house. Cute, clean and prepared for a visit from her daughter, who now lives across the country in California. Photos of family members rest next to small sculptures on her shelves and plants inside the house add to its homey feel.

But downstairs, past Abend’s stair glider, holds a room that most 90-year-olds don’t have in their homes. It’s what Abend calls her “piece of heaven”: a large workshop that contains welding tools and unfinished sculptures.

“I had a shop downtown … and the Labor Day storm took the roof right over my shop,” Abend said. “So I had a partner here and built an attachment to the house, with help financially. And so I have what I call my piece of heaven. The thing is an example for me. Even bad stuff turned out to be good stuff.”

Before entering this revered space, there’s a cluttered drafting table and a small room containing some of Abend’s earlier work. This room is a miniature gallery in itself, containing all the works not on display at Abend’s exhibit in the Everson Museum of Art, entitled “Resolute.” These works stretch from decades back to as recent as the past five years.

The Everson exhibition is being shown along with Dawn Williams Boyd’s exhibition “Woe” and Charley Friedman’s “Soundtracks for the Present Future.” “Resolute” will be on display until April 17.

Here, at her at-home gallery, the unselected works show traits similar to the ones on display at the Everson: abstract metal landscapes, a cast resin bust of her own face and small metal figures that Abend said add scale and personality to her works.

But through this room is where the magic happens. Abend’s workshop looks like the average welder’s, but just a few inches smaller. The framework of her studio, like tables and cabinets, was made by Abend herself, as stock welding equipment was usually too large for her, she said.

On the walls and tables of her workshop are pieces that have yet to be completed. Scraps of metal from previous projects are hung and altered as Abend works carefully to create completed works. Her inspiration doesn’t always come from grand or abstract ideas, she said. Instead, she likes to experiment and create new ways to answer difficult questions.

“My art is just different. I go into another zone. … I think about the material and my life experiences,” Abend said. “It’s many things, and other times it’s playtime with absolutely nothing behind it.”

One of her works that came out of “playtime” on show at the Everson is “Desert Tree,” a piece Abend made in 2018. The creation of it came out of Abend’s constant search for new ways to create art, she said.

While working on a large commission, Abend melted a brass rod onto a steel plate and noticed the splatter created from the brass. She started experimenting with the splatter and leftovers of that commission and eventually created “Desert Tree,” along with jewelry using the same, inventive techniques.

“Art doesn’t need to be with a capital ‘a,’” Abend said. “I also think I get bored. One of the reasons I went to welding is because I hated the flat surfaces.”

Metal work is not all Abend has on display. On the other side of the gallery containing her work, the Everson has displays of her resin cast sculptures. Jay Lurie, a local Syracuse filmmaker who made a film on Abend, credits Abend with creating a new form of sculpting.

“(Abend’s) love of experimentation led to stretching the boundaries of sculpture with ordinary fiberglass resin,” Lurie said.

:boom:Come check out Arlene Abend: Resolute today! With endless determination and unwavering commitment to her craft, Syracuse-based sculptor Arlene Abend has developed a body of work in steel, bronze, and resin that effortlessly moves between whimsy and gravitas. Combining elements of realism and abstraction, Abend’s sculpture addresses topics ranging from social justice to family dynamics to the natural world. What unites her body of work is the artist’s constant drive to experiment with methods and materials, always asking herself, “what if?” as she approaches each new project. Featuring work made across five decades, Arlene Abend: Resolute explores Abend’s innovative nature as well as her strength and resilience as both a woman and an artist. This exhibition is on view through April 17th. :camera_with_flash:: Jamie Young #AtTheE #eversonmuseum #syracuseny #downtownsyracuse #centralnewyork #cnylife

A photo posted by eversonmuseum

Abend created this new way of sculpting after speaking with an SU professor about sculpting with resin. The professor told Abend that the resin she was using would not give her the thickness she was striving for. The process of creating these resin sculptures usually requires multiple pours, and the professor did not think Abend would be able to create a sculpture with the resin she had.

But when she did complete the large sculpture, the professor walked up to Abend and asked “How many pours?” Abend responded by simply holding up one finger (though now, she said she wishes she held up a different finger).

Out of the experimentation, she created works such as her 2007 piece “Remembering.” The sculpture contains a resin bust of her face, with one of her small, metal figures swinging in front of it. The work freezes this act in time; the face always looks at a memory of the past. “Remembering” shares a similar theme to much of Abend’s work: while the sculpture contains her face, it forces the viewer to think of their own personal past.

Even with all of her past work, her 2022 exhibition “Resolute” is the first solo exhibition that she has shown at the Everson. Steffi Chappell, an assistant curator at the Everson, said that her exhibit has been a long time coming.

“(Abend) is beloved in the community. She’s well known in the community. But somehow she has never had an exhibition at the Everson before. So it’s well past time,” Chappell said.

While Abend said she is not making as much work as she used to, she is still looking for new ways to create and invent. She said, however, her motivation to continue creating is more than just boredom.

“I don’t know why I’m doing this. In fact, at this point in my life, I don’t have a religious
anchor or something,” Abend said. “But I have a spiritual sense. I still am childlike and asking questions that have no answers. And I’ve come up with something at least that makes me comfortable. And it’s just a few words: ‘I know I don’t know.’”

Published on April 11, 2022 at 10:55 pm