Dr. Cori Matyas
Geoscientist and Visual Artist
I convey scientific knowledge about Earth systems through sculpture.
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The transfer of energy through conduction or convection (currents) requires a medium as does changing phase from solid to liquid to gas and back. Similarly, artworks transmit ideas and the energy of creation.
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Humans have developed materials and energy transfer methods that enhance our lives yet devastate the planet. We must appreciate nature's beauty as we face a daunting future with issues such as climate change and pollution.
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Email: cjmatyas@hotmail.com
Instagram: cirrusmetals
Recent Sculptures
Steel provides a rigid framework, an endo or exoskeleton upon which more delicate materials can take flight. Clay represents the solid earth over which water travels on its infinite journey. Fibers from recycled paper pay homage to trees which provide oxygen, water, nutrients, shelter, and a bridge from Earth to sky upon which to dream.
Weeping Beech of Knowledge
2024, steel, paper, aluminum wire, cloth
Trees provide oxygen and water to help us breathe and moisten our bodies. The weeping beech is associated with knowledge and healing. The base was created from found steel and the leaves primarily from recycled paper. They progress from images to written words to symbols. They lose their innocent green as knowledge is gained, yet show their true colors at the end. The breath of rebirth amongst winds of change can be heard.
Leaving Scars
2024, steel and clay
Leaves allow trees to breathe and also shade the trunk, which can be scarred by natural or human influences. One tree supports another bearing deep scars, with branches opening to let the story flow as the leaves then complete their lifecycle and fall to the earth, reflecting ghosts of their former selves against the sky. Patterns of bark, veins, shadows, and motion tell this story. This piece can be arranged so that the trees support each other arm-in-arm or back-to-back although there, they can never share an embrace.
Energized Time Frame
2024, Steel
Returning to art after a career as a scientist has infused a new rhythm into my life. I use metalworking to connect my inner and outer strengths – my endo and exoskeletons. I felt a warm wavy whirl after an empowering day in the shop that inspired this piece. The frame has a symmetrical hourglass shape encompassed by cyclic arrows, signifying the breaking of boundaries yet maintaining a strong core. The arrows indicate the way forward even if it might seem backwards. Wavy and straight bars represent dynamic and restful patterns that alternate throughout our lives.
A-New-Meter
2023, steel and clay
As an atmospheric scientist, I record cycles of weather. An anemometer indicates speed as wind moves the cups and the vane marks wind direction. Rain gauges measure water. Here, I physically and conceptually change the routines of these instruments. The cups are turned to collect water instead of wind. Creating them with clay adds weight and grounds them to Earth. Each cup has ridges to pattern the water flow until it runs out the bottom. The ears of the wind vane receive the messages carried by the air and condense them into water that flows through the ridges and drips into the funnels. The vane and funnels rotate about the pole, revealing the patterns of energy that surround us.
Boxed Breath
2023, Thermal Anemometer, Arduino, muscle wire, paper, wood
Trees and other plants enable humans to exist by providing shelter, food, moisture, and oxygen. During photosynthesis, solar radiation powers the conversion of carbon dioxide and water into oxygen and glucose. As photosynthesis is powered by the sun, most trees only release oxygen during the day. In this piece, a human powers the tree. The sapling is rooted inside a tunnel with light supplied by a battery instead of the sun. The carbon dioxide is supplied by the viewer as they look through the binocular-like holes. The viewer’s breath is collected by a small funnel-shaped opening under the nose and registered by a wind sensor. When the current of air is strong enough, the exhale triggers current that heats and contracts wires that move the leaves. During inhale, the sensor does not measure wind and the tree does not move. In nature, the human would be taking in the life-sustaining oxygen generated by the tree. In this artificial environment, they inhale the stale air that occupies the space. The longer the interaction, the more light is produced to help fuel the process. The tunnel is made from the pulp of recycled paper mixed with leaves to provide an earthy scent and the frame is made from wood. The viewer should ponder their intimate connection to trees and nature and how the artificial substances and environments we create to support our hunger for power has permanently polluted our relationships.
Patina of Breath
2022, bronze, wood, fibers
Sharing ideas creates a guiding light that is essential to our survival. Yet it has become rarer for two people or sides to come together. This communication device condenses ideas that emerge as breath, protecting them from outside influences as they flow in the troughs towards the bronze mixing vessel where they merge. Bronze dust particles are nuclei that facilitate condensation and allow ideas to exist in gas, liquid, and solid states. The soft filters are warmly-colored and the intricate tension they create is released right before the ideas merge just as during intimate conversation. It is scaled to the height of each participant’s face when sitting in a chair across the width of a conference table. Thus, a respectful distance is maintained and eye contact can be avoided if desired, allowing participants to feel safe in their personal space yet receive fulfillment in a touchless embrace of spiritual connection.
Ceramics
Best Dresser
2023, clay, steel, linen, flax and marigold plants
Dressers hold clothes which can be made from plants. This dresser holds flax which is used to make linen and marigold flowers which are used in fabric dyes to achieve a yellow-orange color. The top collects and funnels water towards the center and under the wavy grid, dripping into the first drawer. Once that drawer accumulates water, it flows out holes in the face of the dresser in the troughs of a wave shape that is carved into the clay. It spills down into the bottom drawer which is twice as deep to hold soil and the plants. The dresser also comes with accessories – pockets and removable linen neckties for the dress shirt carved into each side. The top drawer opens as well so that one could drip water directly from the top into the second drawer. The dresser is perched on a metal stand of roots that connect it into the soil. Metal drawer pulls twisted into raindrop shapes are covered by braided flax twine. Blue unites all sides and top of the dresser. This piece symbolizes my choice to dress in a nonbinary way, with my new skills in ceramics perched atop the foundation that working in the metals shop has given me to grow roots in the arts community in a mid-life rebirth full of vibrant colors and waves of energy in the form of wind and water.
Sea Level Rise Antarctica
2024 clay
Climate models are run with four representative concentration pathways (RCPs). The best-case scenario (RCP 2.6) projects sea level rise around 0.5 m by 2100, and the worst case (RCP 8.5) a 1.3 m rise. Much of this rise depends on the stability of the ice cliffs on the Antarctic Ice Sheet. This piece depicts sea level rise for each RCP in bowls glazed like maps. Resting inside are Antarctica pieces carved to show different locations and amounts of ice melt.
Ghost Forest
2024, clay
Ghost forests form when saltwater poisons trees. The remnant trunks rise as giant tombstones marking the death of an ecosystem. Sea level rise and sinking lands lead to these saltwater intrusions. A soda solution spraying during glaze firing produced a haunting chemically-induced stain augmenting the theme of the piece as the green slip which contained copper turned brown and red.
Tornado Tankards
2024, clay
Inspired by a tornado and debris ball that it stirs up, the funnel was carved while rotating to capture motion, with glaze made runny to form rills that mimic running water. Twigs were pressed into the debris ball. If you fill one up with liquid and put it down without its base, you will have a disaster on hand!
Ripple Infused Grails
2024, clay
These wave-shaped mugs are designed to fit together or stand apart with large handles for stability. The waves represent the connection between two people sharing the beverage and the convection distributing energy within the liquid and between the liquid and the air. The set has left- and right-handed pairings.
Curriculum Vitae
Education
2005 Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Ph.D., Physical Geography (Climatology) Pennsylvania State University
2001Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â M.A., Physical Geography (Climatology) Arizona State University Â
1999Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â B.S., Environmental Geoscience (Atmospheric Science); Minor: Sculpture Clarion University of PA
Professional Appointments
2020 - pres.    Professor – University of Florida
2012 - 2020    Associate Professor – University of Florida
2005 - 2012    Assistant Professor – University of Florida
2004 - 2005    Visiting Assistant Professor – Ohio University
2002 - 2004    Graduate Teaching Assistant – Pennsylvania State University
2001 - 2002    Graduate Research Assistant – Pennsylvania State University
1999 - 2001     Graduate Research Assistant – Arizona State University
1998 - 1999Â Â Â Work-Study Sculpture Studio, Clarion University of PA
1997-1999Â Â Â Â Undergraduate Research Assistant, NASA-JOVE program, Clarion University of PA
1996-1998Â Â Â Â Work-Study Carlson Library, Clarion University of PA
Memberships
2024Â Mid-South Sculpture Alliance
Awards and Honors
2019 - 2022 University of Florida Term Professorship
2019 Southeastern Division of the American Association of Geographers Excellence in
Teaching Award
2019 College of Liberal Arts and Sciences Teacher of the Year Award
2018 University of Florida Water Institute Photo Contest Winner
2016 - 2019 University of Florida Term Professorship
2014 - 2015 Colonel Allan R. and Margaret G. Crow Term Professor
2009 College of Liberal Arts and Sciences Teacher of the Year Award
2006 American Association of Geographers (AAG) Nystrom Competition Finalist
2005 AAG Climate Specialty Group Student Paper Competition Winner
Solo Shows
2003Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Walker Building stairwell, Pennsylvania State University, State College, PA
1999 Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Empty Set Gallery, Clarion PA
1998 Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Empty Set Gallery, Clarion PA
Group Exhibitions
2024 Sculpture Garden, Museum of Contemporary Arts Long Island, Patchogue, NY
2024 State of Water, Cade Museum, Gainesville, FL
2024 Queer Healing and Celebration, Working Method Contemporary Gallery, Tallahassee, FL
2024 Continuous Cycles, Working Method Contemporary Gallery, Tallahassee, FL
2023 Post Cards from Utopia, Italy International Center traveling exhibition (Sarasota, FL, Italy)
2023 ARTBOX.PROJECTS Miami 4.0, Miami, FL
2023 Openings: Decagon Gallery http://www.decagongallery.com/openings-exhibit
2023 Extinction: An International Group Exhibition by Gallerium https://www.gallerium.art/p/extinction-2023.html
2022 Possum Creek Park, Gainesville, FL
2004 The Weather Project, State College, PA
2001 Wood You? Wood You Not?, Step Gallery, Tempe, AZ
2001 Mystery Gallery, Art Detour 13, Phoenix, AZ
1998 Changing Channels, Empty Set Gallery, Clarion, PA
Workshops Attended
2024 Introduction to Metal Working and Biomorphism in Clay: New York School of the Arts Summer Intensive Program New York, NY
2024 Metal Sculpture Welding & Fabrication: Art Students League New York, NY
2022 - 2024 Welding (5) and Blacksmithing (3): Fever Metal Arts Gainesville, FL
2023 Blacksmithing (2): Florida Artist Blacksmith Association Annual Conference Gainesville, FL
2023 TIG Welding: Hardy & Fuller Denver, CO
2022 Welding and Blacksmithing: Wrought Iron Arts Largo, FL