Alabama Artist ‘Tin Man’ to Give Sculpture Demonstration at UA Honors College Event

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. – The University of Alabama Honors College and UA Housing & Residential Communities are hosting an evening with Alabama artist Charlie Lucas, known as the “Tin Man,” on Tuesday, March 3 at 6:30 p.m. in the Smith Hall Grand Gallery.

The dinner and sculpture demonstration with Lucas includes a catered dinner and is open to all Honors College students as well as to interested member of the UA community. The event is part of an Honors College-Housing & Residential Speakers’ Series that has brought artists and scholars from across the nation to share their expertise with undergraduate students and members of the UA community.

The event is free of charge.

Lucas has been a regular exhibitor at the Kentuck Festival of the Arts, and his

work is a part of the N.A.L.L. foundation’s international exhibition “Alabama Art.” An Alabama native, Lucas has been a sculptor and painter since he was a child.

As Lucas explains his work: “I go to the scrap yards. I go to dump sites. And I want kids to see this thing. I don’t want them to see it in the shiny, in the newness of it. I don’t even attempt to paint so much of my work. My sculpture is natural … because society is not the shiny and pretty, glamorous thing that we pretend it is. If we really peel ourselves back and look at the true part of ourselves, we would be some of the ugliest things you want to see.”

Lucas is the subject of a forthcoming book from the UA Press. Co-author Chip Cooper said Lucas’s work is “timeless because it’s from his vivid imagination of the spirit world. He sees the world in a very beautiful way and using all different types of mediums brings us into his vision.

“He is known all over the world as an excellent artist. But his story doesn’t stop here. Another part of his life is teaching young children about art and its potential for them.”

For more information, contact Dr. Amy Dayton-Wood, Honors College faculty-in-residence, at adayton@bama.ua.edu or Dr. Jacqueline Morgan at jacqueline.morgan@ua.edu.