Paolo Soleri, Founder Of Cosanti Foundation
I have bells hanging in my backyard. One bell in particular I received nearly 20 years ago. It’s a cute little thing. It’s thick and has some serious heft. The shape of the bell’s clapper isn’t the normal ball at the end of a rod. This one looks like a jack from the game of ball and jacks. The round ends of the clapper strike the bell. From the clapper hangs a thin, triangular piece of metal. It catches the breeze to forcefully pull the clapper against the bell. The clapper strike makes a high pitched tinkling. The bell was a gift I received weeks after my dad passed. On a breezy day my dad stops by for a brewski.
The bell I received came from Cosanti, a ceramics studio in Scottsdale, Arizona. It was founded by architect Paolo Soleri (illustration). Soleri, an Italian immigrant, came to the US in 1947 to study under Frank Lloyd Wright. Following his year and a half studies at Taliesin West, Soleri received only two commissions in his career. He designed and built a private home and he built The Ceramica Artistica Solimene, a ceramics factory on Italy’s Amalfi coast. In 1955 Soleri returned to Scottsdale to begin making earth-cast ceramics including ceramic Cosanti windbells with his new ceramics skills he developed at the Solimene Factory in Italy. The bells he created helped to support his theoretic urban design exploration and architectural experimentation he developed while studying under Wright. In 1965, Soleri established The Cosanti Foundation, a non-profit organization dedicated to influencing the way the built world is created in balance with the environment. Many hundreds of art and architectural students from around the world have apprenticed at Cosanti with Soleri.
During a trip to Phoenix my partner and I arrived to Cosanti at the end of the work day. The staff was bringing in a cases of beer and boxes of pizzas. A man in dusty, rumpled clothes approached me. He thanked me for visiting. It was Paolo Soleri.
Source, cosanti.org
