How Hard Could This Be?

For most of my life I have been far too busy to "be an artist". I have always had the elements

of an artist, I have the eye for it, my skills were in the construction trade where detail is important. It was on my fiftieth birthday that I had the opportunity to change my life. To make the story short, that year I quit the construction business, layed off seven employees, built a

1000 square foot studio in my backyard and bought a little welder! I had never even seen a welder before! What drove me to this, and I will admit I was pretty fanatical, was customers wanting Ornamental Iron between my Stone Posts. (I'll tell you the Stone Posts Story later if you are interested). I couldn't find a welder with any enthusiasm, with a sense of balance, with passion, with an eye for what needed to be done. Welding is really simple. I could teach you to weld in five minutes! Like a lot of art skills it takes about 2,000 hours to get good at it and I practiced every day! In the begining I made junk, just welding metal together and having fun going to scrap yards on a hunt for material. Within a year I knew I could make a living doing this

and had my "stuff" at several local nurseries on consignment. It was a "hit" and I made trellis's

and arbors and garden art by the truckload! It was just two years ago that someone encouraged me to "be in an art gallery". I found one in a tourist town surrounded by vinyards not too far from where I live and visited them to see what they had. Two weeks later I brought them a truck load! It was that simple!