Local Artists form The Blank Canvas Guild

Tucked into a woodsy spot off West Second Street and across from the Twin Lakes baseball field is a white industrial building.

Once home to a fire extinguisher outlet, Cyclops Studios now houses The Blank Canvas, a local artists’ guild founded by IU graduate Adam Nahas along with friends John Shestak and Kyle Caird.

The three met as students in the Henry Radford Hope School of Fine Arts.

“One day we’re gonna have an art studio, we said — and sure enough, the day has come,” Nahas said as he walked around the studio.

He said it wasn’t as hard to start a studio right out of school as others might think. Nahas has worked for five years at the White River Foundry in Spencer, Ind., so he has been able to pursue his artwork full time while maintaining a commitment to the emergent guild.

The studio is cool and spacious inside, and artists of many persuasions have left their works-in-progress there for the time being. Nahas showed me around to each artist’s desk — to collage books created by Heather Dent, Ryan Cook’s guitar space, computers used for graphic design by Troy Engelhardt and Kyle Caird, and even a dance studio for guild member Charlotte White.

I couldn’t help but notice the two massive clay tigers guarding the door and seemingly melting in the heat. He explains to me that he is remodeling them after a mishap by the original artist — a project from the foundry in Spencer. Inside is a similar lion’s head, which he explains will soon become a gargoyle.

Nahas first sculpts his figures in an oil-based clay called plasticine, then covers them in a plaster shell to create a mold. He also enjoys sketching, his first medium, but said he values metalworking for its ability to be welded and added or subtracted to.

A copy of Zoobooks is on his worktable.

“Abstracts are kind of hard for me to do. I like to work on animals and mythological creatures,” Nahas said. “And I have a fascination with human anatomy.”

To the right of us is a copper cast of a woman’s leg, and to the front, a mold of a man’s back. He’s interested in all kinds of body casting, from babies’ footprints to couples’ hands and even sculpture portraits.

“I accept commissions. Eight-foot statues or 1-inch rings — I can do it or I can learn how to do it.”

He says that starting Cyclops Studios was little more than tax forms and paperwork, but that it did allow him to become more business-minded. However, he’s quick to remind me that the guild members have a big hand in running the show.

Cyclops always needs help, Nahas said. Eventually, he said he’d like to offer classes here, as a sort of community art school.

“We’re starting something. Maybe we’ll inspire another Andy Warhol. But that’s a long ways off.”