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METTLE METAL Finding Sculpture in Salvage
Photo by Jim Shearhart This article is reprinted with permission by Locator UpFront. It first appeared in the May / June 2001 issue. |
The brontosaurus along Highway 15 in Gage, Okla. was created from wheels and other scrap metal by Jim Powers, the local artisan. |
| Drive through Gage on state Highway 15, and sooner or later (usually sooner, since the northwest Oklahoma town isn't all that big) you'll see a brontosaurus, about as big as an elephant and made of scrap metal, standing by the side of the road. Chances are, Jim Powers won't be too far away. "I don't quite know why I do this;' said Powers, a 67-year-old former policeman and retired owner of an auto recycling facility, who built the dinosaur as well as a couple of dozen other pieces, mostly from parts lying around his yard, in the past decade. "It seems like I just had to create. My imagination was confusing me. And it turned out to be enjoyable and fun. In fact, I don't see any- thing when I do it that stops me from having fun." In the past 10 years, Powers has created elephants, birds, insects and even a space ship - all put together with used auto parts, some oil field equipment scraps, a welding torch and an imagination that just keeps imagining. His pieces have been sold throughout the world, often purchased by Ripley's Believe It or Not exhibits, including a preying mantis to the Philippines, a buffalo in Denmark, and a dinosaur in Taiwan. |
That's a far cry from his first sculpture, a cowboy with a long arm and a pointing finger He made it from drive shafts and an oil field pipe so his wife Beulah would have a place to hang a bug zapper. A passerby saw the cowboy standing at the auto recycling facility, and asked to buy it for $500. Although Powers didn't sell the piece, the offer made him think he might have a future put- ting these sorts of iron and metal creations together Since then, he has displayed his work in various shows and small museums throughout Oklahoma, and a buffalo is on display at the Plains Indian and Pioneers Museum in nearby Woodward. Most of the remaining pieces are on display at his old facility, which he closed in 1990. Along the way, Powers also learned a little bit about art (ask him about the difference between the abstract and contemporary movements), and did a couple of abstract pieces on commission. There is also a web site displaying his work at http://www.angelfire. com/lk/powersdomain/junk.html. |
Powers' favorite sculpture is a life-size elephant that the Ripley's people bought and shipped to South Korea. The piece, which took a little more than three months to create, is made of auto rims mounted on an A-frame from a three-quarter ton pickup. The tail is an old drive shaft. There is also a door in the belly so kids can climb inside and play with the sculpture. "I like to make things that are large enough to incorporate other things in them," Powers said. "I like to make them enormous because they represent strength." The one thing he doesn't spend too much time doing is wonder- ing why he does what he does. "I always have a hard time answering the whys and what for questions, like my wife asks me," he explained. "Those are kind of hard for me to answer I have never thought of myself as an artist. But a museum curator told me one time that an artist is someone who likes to create, so maybe what she said is true. Maybe I am artist." Anyone who sees Powers' work will attest to that. |