Putting the rod to the metal and creating art

Every year since 2012 I’ve made the trek via automobile to Las Vegas to display my work along with a handful of the most talented artists in the world. They’re artists whom I feel lucky to count among my best friends. We make up the Art Walk of the SEMA Show, one of the largest tradeshows on the planet. And every year I seem to put myself in a deeper hole to dig out of in terms of time to prepare. 2017 was no different, as I didn’t return to the states from Iraq until Labor Day weekend and didn’t get the shop rebuilt until two weeks after that.

I contemplated going kind of off-the-wall with a new direction in regards to my artwork, but given I had less than six weeks to get enough sculptures finished for my booth, I decided to play it a bit closer to the vest. Anytime you try something different, it’s hard to gauge the time it will take to complete. So, I stuck with familiar concepts, but I think I managed to breathe fresh life into and push the general style of my work forward at the same time.

First up was a motorcycle. For me, creating a bike is low stress, high reward, and instant gratification. Even though each piece is unique, and my goal is to add a new element to every one, this one was motorcycle No. 199. I hadn’t done a sculpture of any kind in almost a year, and after the robbery, I was getting used to a new workspace and new tools. Just getting my head back in the game was a challenge, and this was the way to do it.

I built the Harley bobber over a weekend, and I loved how it turned out. I like taking recycled pieces and repurposing them into parts that aren’t obvious at first, if ever. The exhaust pipes are cut from a push rod out of my brother-in-law’s old supercharged Dakota R/T engine; the air cleaner is a bullet casing; and the fuel tank is a chunk of an Allen wrench coated with silicon bronze. That last part was something new; the coating left brazed bronze “beads” on the surface that I didn’t sand.

Around that time I had an idea for a series of small cartoonish sculptures called “The Angry Mechanic.” It was a thought spawned from the pile of random tiny wrenches sitting in a bin, and what the heck was I going to do with them. It’s also a quick build, something that’s more affordable and makes the art more accessible. And it was fun. So far I’ve done only two, but more are on their way!

p>I think it was three years ago that my friend Jonathan Ward, from Icon 4x4 fame, and I discussed doing a version of one of his Bronco builds. He thought it would look good in an action pose with an articulated suspension.

The challenge for me was that the underneath of the truck would be exposed. I wanted to build that part of the truck in a manner that would have enough detail to allow the viewer to fill in the blanks in their mind without going into “replica” mode. Then, rather than fabricating terrain for the Bronco to climb, I walked out the shop door and found a rock. It think it’s the first time I’ve used nonmetal in a sculpture.

Back before Instagram took off and everyone and their brother started doing welded weaves, I used to get messaged daily about how to “walk the cup”. I eventually made a sculpture as kind of a playful stab at the expression. Among welders it’s probably the most popular piece I’ve done, and it was time to make version 2.0.

On this take, there’s a bit more shape to it, with a weaved weld all the way around a pipe. I don’t always get to show off “weldporn” in the sculptures, and felt this was a fun way to do just that.

And finally, I tackled the most ambitious of the SEMA prep ventures, a 2018 Dodge Demon. Many of my good friends at Dodge and SRT were heavily involved in the car’s development and launch. I was fortunate enough to travel to the Demon’s unveiling in New York this spring, and even had the chance to flog the 840-HP beast at the track this fall. The last late-model car sculpture from me was, if I remember correctly, a Ford GT in 2012, so I figured it was time, and the subject matter was ideal. One of the mandates from Dodge’s head man Tim Kuniskis was that the Demon do a wheelie; making the sculpture an action piece doing just that seemed perfect.

All in all I was superstoked with the new pieces I was able to display at the show. The 5,000-mile trip itself was incredible, too, but that’s a story for another time!

All images courtesy of Josh Welton, Brown Dog Welding, and cannot be republished without the artist's permission.