PatrickToups

Patrick Toups had dreadlocks. He recently shaved them, which makes him completely unrecognizable to me. I picture him and his dreadlocks hovering far too close to the bubbling lava stream of an iron pour or shopping at the grocer with black soot all about his face – Patrick always has soot on his face. I am not actually sure it ever comes off; maybe it’s a tattoo. Patrick beats the hell out of metal with a sledgehammer, he tinkers with wood and plays around with canvas. You name it—and he’s tried to set it on fire. Once, we ate jellybeans with him at our friend’s apartment and realized that in addition to being one of the finest sculptors in the city, Patrick Toups is a fine personality.

Dashboard/Courtney Hammond: Some artists are of the belief that to be completely successful as an artist you must virtually give everything else up. Some would say this of you – what are your thoughts?

Patrick Toups: I have always felt that I have put my art in front of me. It surely makes for difficult relations - like women and my parents even. Next week will be the first time I have seen them in 2 years even thought they live in Florida.

Dash: Is this because of you don’t take time out of work?

PT: Mostly. I don’t ever stop working. I take extra jobs so that I can collect scraps or make extra money so that I can spend it on supplies. It is just me showing myself dedication and proving what I can go up against. Every effort is in the direction of my art.

“If you’re going to try, go all the way. Otherwise, don’t even start. This could mean losing girlfriends, wives, relatives and maybe even your mind. It could mean not eating for three or four days. It could mean freezing on a park bench. It could mean jail. It could mean derision. It could mean mockery—isolation. Isolation is the gift. All the others are a test of your endurance, of how much you really want to do it. And, you’ll do it, despite rejection and the worst odds. And it will be better than anything else you can imagine. If you’re going to try, go all the way. There is no other feeling like that. You will be alone with the gods, and the nights will flame with fire. You will ride life straight to perfect laughter. It’s the only good fight there is.” –Charles Bukowski

Dash: Last year you completed 58 iron pours in 52 consecutive weeks which churned out some pretty incredible work. I thought you were trying to kill yourself but what was your actual reasoning or drive for doing this?

PT: Partially just me being a glutton for punishment. There were two roads of thought on this. One being that I simply wanted to produce a piece of art a week and the other was more of an internal struggle. The night of the 07 iron pour at Georgia State I had a silly mistake of the bottom dropping out of my furnace. It was a huge catastrophe but only because of one silly mistake. It made me think I really needed to learn this furnace inside and out so that this never happened again. I needed to become a master of this machine so to speak.

Dash: How did you realize you wanted to wrap yourself up in this madness?

PT: Well I began school as a graphic design major - by parents influence of course. It was actually the only way I was allowed to go to art school. I fed them promises of graphic design and a good, steady job with lots of money. In the midst of my art survey classes I met Phil Proctor and was introduced to sculpture. I immediately got into casting and was struck by the idea of stone carving. I loved the permanence of it. I attended my first Sloss iron conference (http://www.slossfurnaces.com/). The experience and the people there made the life path seem real and doable. I buried my head and I haven’t come up since.