![\"\"](\"\/blog\/carmenelectrode\/wp-content\/christina-300x200.jpg\" "\\"Christina")
I first ran into Christina Sporrong online while searching for \u201cwomen welders.\u201d \u00a0Her business website for Spitfire Forge in Taos, New Mexico<\/a> came up. \u00a0I bookmarked the page, and even exchanged a few emails with Christina. \u00a0One of the things that intrigued me about her was that she teaches welding workshops for women, so a few months later when I found myself in New Mexico I had the opportunity to meet her face to face.<\/p>\nChristina moved to Taos in a VW Van with four hundred dollars in her pocket and a toolbox. \u00a0Even though she had some skill as a welder, she started waitressing to earn money. \u00a0A lot of the girls she worked with thought it would be cool to learn to weld, so Christina started teaching them. \u00a0Back then she only charged $50 per person and used that money to buy more tools.<\/p>\n
She\u2019s now been in New Mexico for over twelve years and lives on Taos\u2019 west mesa on 15 acres of land. \u00a0She built her house herself, putting to use her skills in construction and fabrication and her artistic aesthetic. \u00a0When she sent me directions and a description of the property via email I was sure I would get lost and I knew, in my low riding Volkswagen beetle, it would be slow when she told me to turn onto a gravel road and go for seven miles. \u00a0I was supposed to look for the tall ranch gate with an anvil and a dark house with gear teeth and lots of sculptural stuff in the yard.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt should be obvious,\u201d she wrote.<\/p>\n
![\"house\"](\"\/blog\/carmenelectrode\/wp-content\/house.jpg\" "\\"house\\"")
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We were both right. \u00a0The seven miles took me about 20 minutes, skirting the western edge of the Rio Grande. \u00a0Christina\u2019s description, however, didn\u2019t do the property or the landscape justice. \u00a0The house itself is a rustic brown concrete looking structure, its shape reminiscent of a Quonset hut with the roof shaped like the wheel of a gear. Although it is industrial, it somehow feels organic, mimicking the shape of the Sangre de Cristo mountains rising above Taos to the east across the gorge.<\/p>\n
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Some of the sculptures scattered about the yard are Christina\u2019s and some are the work of her partner, Christian, who built the large robotic hand that rises above the mesa like it wants to grab something right out of the sky.<\/p>\n
Christina herself was not at all what I expected. \u00a0She\u2019s slender and tall– \u00a0 at least taller than my five foot two inches. \u00a0 She wore jeans and a sweat shirt, often pulling the hood up over her mussed brown hair to ward off the autumn chill. \u00a0Even without make up or fancy clothes, Christina is beautiful, her green eyes sparkle, and her smile is genuine. \u00a0She made me feel at ease and welcome in her home.<\/p>\n
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I shivered and buttoned my sweater. \u00a0It was a good twenty degrees colder than the Albuquerque I left that morning. \u00a0Christina told me that some winters she used to head to the San Francisco Bay area to teach welding classes at The Crucible, a non-profit industrial arts center in Oakland<\/a>. \u00a0Nowadays she offers a week long course at her own shop, \u201cDe Mystify Metal.\u201d<\/a> The course is Christina\u2019s way of promoting metal as a tangible medium for women to work in. \u00a0She said for a lot of women even the tools in the shop are intimidating.<\/p>\n I told Christina about my own experience going into junior high school. \u00a0I tried to sign up for the shop class that included some basics of auto mechanics, carpentry and metal work. \u00a0I was \u201ccounseled\u201d out of it and encouraged to join the Home Economics class– the one that all the girls signed up for.<\/p>\n I imagine all those girls, now women, signing up for courses like Christina\u2019s. \u00a0They come from all over, she told me, \u201cfrom Canada, and even Europe.\u201c \u00a0It feels really good to empower women,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n In addition to the welding workshops, Christina fabricates artistic gates, railings and other decorative and architectural metalwork that can be found all over northern New Mexico. \u00a0Though sometimes she works collaboratively with builders or home owners, for the most part the designs are her own. \u00a0\u201cIf someone comes in and shows me a picture of someone else\u2019s work I won\u2019t build it. I\u2019m sort of famous for being difficult in that way,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n She told me that business is good, even in this economy. \u00a0\u201cThe rich don\u2019t get any poorer,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Although the decorative ironwork has been her bread and butter<\/a>, she\u2019s hoping to phase out of that business. \u00a0\u201cWelding is pretty toxic; I\u2019m going to be forty this year, so I\u2019m hoping to put more of my energy into my own work,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Christina paused, then added, \u201cEven if I fail at it, I feel like I have to try. \u00a0What\u2019s worse is not trying.\u201d<\/p>\n I could only nod, remembering one of my favorite quotes from Theodore Roosevelt, \u201cFar better it is to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checkered by failure, than to take rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy much nor suffer much, because they live in the gray twilight that knows neither victory nor defeat.”<\/p>\n As Christina made me lunch– \u00a0 an omelet made with fresh eggs from the chickens out back, I looked around her place. \u00a0The view through the floor to ceiling picture glass window showcasing the mountains of Taos was inspiring. \u00a0It was November and the peaks were already snow capped. Or at nearly 12,000 feet probably still snow-capped. \u00a0From the center of the living room I spotted a trapeze and a thick red ribbon hanging from the ceiling. I had to ask. \u00a0\u201cAre you an acrobat?\u201d<\/p>\n She told me she learned trapeze 12 years ago and has been working with Wise Fools New Mexico, a circus based in Santa Fe<\/a>. \u00a0For Christina it\u2019s a great way to stay in shape and stay strong. \u201cAnd it\u2019s really healthy for the mind to hang upside down\u2026 \u00a0 it\u2019s just silly,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n When we met, Christina had just started her latest project– \u00a0The Heron. \u00a0She was working on a way to fund its fabrication and she is now fulfilling her dream to take it to Burning Man<\/a>. \u00a0Although she had been a Burning Man regular in the past, she hadn\u2019t attended for a while\u2014until last year when she went to check it out again. \u00a0She said even though its gotten big, it\u2019s still pretty cool and that everyone– \u00a0the people that DO stuff are older, people with time and money. \u00a0\u201cIt\u2019s all about the art,\u201d she said. \u201cYou go to experience these large scale sculptures.\u201d<\/p>\n The Heron will soon join those large scale sculptures on the Black Rock Playa in Nevada later this month. \u00a0Standing over 30 feet tall, this steel installation will serve the festival as a sculpture and a spontaneous venue bringing two of Christina\u2019s artistic passions together\u2014 metal art and aerial performance.<\/p>\n Imagine walking across the playa in a mild dust storm. Figures appear and vanish. Scenes flash in and out of focus. All of a sudden a colossal, moving sculpture\u2014part prehistoric bird, part oil derrick\u2014takes form in front of you.<\/p>\n When the air clears, you see its wings lit with fire in the night sky and its skeletal trussing casts bold shadows on the plain. (Sporrong, Grant Proposal 2008)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Inspired by the cranes at the Oakland Shipyards, for Christina, the Heron epitomizes the evolutionary progress of civilization\u2019s march through mechanization, exploring the relationship between machine and nature.<\/p>\n After she returns to her New Mexico mesa, Christina will no doubt be working on her next dream– to establish a residency for women metal artists. The old shipping container out back will be made into a one room casita, and the resident artist will have full access to the metal shop and the stunning vistas that Christina has found so inspiring.<\/p>\n When I left, I gave Christina a refrigerator magnet– a small token of my appreciation for her time and welcoming spirit. \u00a0The single word DREAM etched into a small shiny piece of metal seemed somewhat inappropriate. \u00a0Christina is already dreaming. \u00a0And more importantly, doing.<\/p>\n Author’s notes….<\/p>\n 1. The Rosie the Riveter Memorial is located in the Bay Area<\/a>, not too far from the Oakland Shipyards<\/p>\n 2. Since meeting Christina, she’s also started up another business, custom fabricated equipment for the aerial artist<\/a><\/p>\n 3. I was in Taos again in July, \u00a0and ran into Christina at Eske’s Brew Pub (best fish and chips ever!) … \u00a0New Mexico really is a small town!<\/p>\n![\"tools\"](\"\/blog\/carmenelectrode\/wp-content\/tools-300x199.jpg\" "\\"tools\\"")
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