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Name: Greg Leonard
Title: 3-D workshop foreman
Department: Art
Time at USC: 11 years
What are your job duties? To ensure that the tools and equipment the students use to create art projects in the 3-D workshop are in safe, working order, and that the students use them in a safe and proper manner. In addition, I am the unofficial department handyman. I maintain and upgrade the facilities, spaces, and equipment. For example, I designed and installed the lighting for the new student gallery recently created on the ground floor of McMaster College.
And before you joined the department? I was assistant technical director for the theatre facilities at Hofstra University on Long Island, New York. I was also the technical director for the USC summer rep series held at Longstreet and Drayton Hall theatres in the summer of 1991. And I was one of the owners of a Five Points bar called PAVLOVS.
Where are you from originally? Ames, Iowa. We came to Fort Jackson from Annandale, Virginia. My father was a career military officer, and I finished my last year of high school at Spring Valley. I enrolled at USC and received my BFA in ceramics in 1982.
So you can really relate to the students and their artistic goals. Most definitely! My art background is a tremendous asset. I can understand what the students are trying to achieve, and working with them is the most satisfying aspect of my job.
What is in the 3-D workshop? We have a variety of woodworking equipment, such as table saws, band saws, stationary sanders, and drill presses; oxygen/acetylene, GMAW and SMAW welders; and a plasma cutter. Hand-held power tools, such as pneumatic nail guns, battery operated drills, electric circular saws, grinders, and routers are used, as well as common hand tools like hammers, pliers, screwdrivers, and chisels.
Do you provide safety instruction? Yes! At the beginning of every semester, I arrange for the classes to attend a workshop orientation covering details about access to the 3-D workshop and its rules. This includes information about safety, clean up, and supplies.
What types of projects take shape in the shop? Currently, one professor’s class is working on a wood sculpture project that deals with positive and negative space and is an introduction to 3-D work. Wood is a good material to use in the beginning because it is easy to obtain and easy to manipulate. As students progress to upper-level classes, they explore other materials, such as steel, bronze, aluminum, plaster, glass, and clay.
What is your artwork like? In the past few years, I have been using found objects as elements in mixed media sculptures. A local gallery sponsored a show that dealt with automobile hubcaps and I produced a piece for that. It was a large flower. The hubcaps were the petals of the flower supported by a welded steel armature. I cut tires to the shape of leaves, and a truck wheel filled with wheel balancing weights was used as the soil and flowerpot. It stood over eight feet tall and was over four feet wide. I plan to make a similar one twice that size. I also created, with the help of other artists, a Christmas tree for the Palmetto Health Children’s Hospital Festival of Trees auction. It was made of aluminum and copper wire and tubing, and it won Best In Show. I also produced two trees for the Cultural Council’s Palmetto Tree Project.
How do you spend your free time? I have an eight-year-old daughter and a five-year-old son. I enjoy spending lots of time with them, playing at a park or attending cultural events. I also spend as much time as I can at Sarge Frye Field, watching my friend Ray Tanner guide the Gamecocks to another trip to Omaha. My wife, Gina Moore, is also involved in art: she is tenured professor at Benedict College. She teaches illustration and graphic design, and has a BFA and MFA in painting from USC. We met on campus at USC when we were art students.
10/05
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