Many of you may have seen Corey running around in the background of the Cosanti foundry, but did you wonder what he was working on?
Corey Rosen is a Cosanti Originals Special Projects artisan. He was born and raised in Arizona and has been here most of his life except for a few years back east for college. Before he started working here, Corey had no knowledge of Cosanti and only cursory knowledge of Arcosanti—it simply looked like an interesting place to be, and he came here on a whim. This was in 2007, and his assessment was correct: it is indeed an interesting place to work.
Corey has many roles and wears many hats at Cosanti, but he says working on special projects is one of the most rewarding parts of the job. Before arriving at Cosanti, he has no interest in and knowledge of the bronze craft. This does not mean he was void of creativity—it just wasn't his first instinct. He had gone to college for economics, a seemingly unlikely background given some of the projects he has created.
He explained that as we go through life, we're always responding emotionally to the world around us and assigning words to describe those emotions. "The language we use to express our feelings is crude at best: it can't even begin to capture everything we're feeling inside. But the best art—in any medium or genre—can elicit emotional responses outside of linguistics: art can make us feel something beyond what words can describe," says Corey. That's why Corey loves working on projects like this one at Cosanti: it allows him to explore these other dimensions of the human experience with people who are just as passionate about art as he is.
Cosanti is a space where anyone visiting for the first time will be inspired. Guaranteed. One of the best things about working here is seeing this effect on people—Corey recently had a friend visit from out of town and brought him to see the place. While it is easy to be still inspired every day he goes to work, he had forgotten how a first-time visitor feels when gazing at the earth-cast structures and the monument to the human potential they represent. After giving him a brief tour, his friend was rendered somewhat speechless; it's remarkable to be part of a project that traffics inspiration!
