Last night Mackie and about 50 fun art loving, food loving, and even barley pop loving friends enjoyed our celebrating our new heart display at the Side Door at 425 SE Washington in Portland, Oregon. It was great to see everyone and especially nice to see the impact our work makes to people.
We have a great life and great friends, and we're very fortunate to have such a following. It's humble to recall that this all started because of the metal scrap piles around the West Virginia family farm where I grew up as a teenager; my varied work career from working in machine shops in the Auburn, Washington area; to working with the cable tv, telephone, and power companies; to our friends who seek us out at art shows throughout the country, our art galleries that spend countless hours supporting our work; and, most of all to my amazing wife Mackie who continues to encourage me.
All these factors contribute to the way I look at what others discard. The hearts in the two photos are made from recycled metal shelving of different sizes and colors. I love working with metal exactly as I find it. Of course I add a lot of elbow grease in cleaning up the metal with wire brushes, steel wool and then finishing it off with several coats of wax buffed out to a nice shine. It's a lot of work but you are worth it.
The left heart with the varying color stripes is about two feet tall by a foot wide and was created from shelving that was about four inches wide. I had to cut the sides off and grind the sides down before I welded it onto an inch and a half tall frame. The standing heart in orange with the diamond plate is about 16 inches tall by 12 inches wide. It's created from the same metal shelves. Turn the heart around and their is lots of plumbing parts, tools, and copper springs to give it a real industrial look. The red heart's skin was created from a piece of three foot by eight foot steel shelving that I created three cutouts in and rivited a piece of polished aluminum diamond plate in it. I like them all but the red one is really special.
I love feedback. You can leave a comment here, and I'd love to get back to you and add you to our mailing list so you'll get updates on where we're going to be at.
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