Cracked Earth
Araan Schmidt | Cast iron and steel | 2022
Cracked Earth is a twenty-sided sphere composed of identical triangles. Its surface originates from a black-and-white photograph of cracked earth — source data stretched and altered across a sphere in the 3D modeling program Blender, producing a landscape of fissures and mountains. A duplicate layer was then created opposite the surface layer. Both layers were split into twenty sections, and eleven of the paired sections were molded in resin sand and assembled as a single mold with an external gating system, also built in resin sand. The piece was cast at Sloss Historic Furnaces in Birmingham, Alabama, during the National Conference on Cast Iron Art and Practices in 2019.
About the Artist
Araan Schmidt attended the Kansas City Art Institute in Kansas City, Missouri, earning
his Bachelor's degree in 2004. In 2005, he was awarded a Graduate School Fellowship
at the University of Minnesota, where he received his Master's degree in 2008. He
is currently an Associate Professor of Sculpture at Colorado Mesa University. Past
professional positions include Sculptor in Residence at Binghamton University, visiting
professor at Alfred University, and full-time lecturer at Bowling Green State University.
Schmidt has been awarded the Open Studio Artist Fellowship at Franconia Sculpture Park in Franconia, Minnesota, and exhibits nationally and internationally — from the Burchfield-Penney Art Center in Buffalo, New York, to the Pedvale Open Air Museum in Sabile, Latvia.
