WHEAT RIDGE, Colo. (KDVR) — Sculpture, photographer, writer and teacher, one man who just launched a studio in Colorado is hoping to share his skills with the community.
It was Joshua Margolis’ dream to display his artwork while helping the community create their own. FOX31 got an inside look at his new studio in Wheat Ridge.
“I’ve always felt kind of out of place and other steps with the world and I wanted to create a community that was for people who maybe didn’t fit in, in the normal square pegs,” Margolis said.
Margolis is new to Colorado, but he’s not new to sculpting clay.
“I’ve been working with clay for over 30 years now,” Margolis said. “I’ve been teaching for about 20 and then I started writing my books about five or six years ago.”
His first medium was molding clay characters, but he knew a piece of the story was missing, so he decided to write it himself. He takes his clay characters outside and photographs them.
“If I want to tell a different part of the story, I have to make new pieces for that,” he said
Now his clay pieces like Melvin the robot are part of a plot. The clay characters come to life on the page.
He’s in the process of publishing his third book; it should be available for purchase in August.
He is not stopping at creator-in-chief, he wants to mold students too.
“So community is of utmost importance to me and creativity is of utmost importance and I wanted to combine the two,” Margolis said. “Creating artwork is fantastic, but giving the gift of creativity to other people and inspiring them to want to create new things, is just as valuable to me.”
This is why just a few weeks ago he opened his studio called “Out of Step Clay” in Wheat Ridge, where others can sign up for a class to hand mold clay or use the pottery wheel.
“I love the moment of wow when students are really excited about what they’re about to learn and when they realize that they can accomplish that,” Margolis said. “It’s a hard skill to learn, but I stress the process over the product and if we focus on the fundamentals, they’re going to be really happy with the results.”
Also if drawing is more your speed you can put pen to paper to create a character and if it gets picked Margolis will mold it out of clay.