- How did you come up with the idea of the Spectacular Sculpture garden?

- Interesting story.

I'm glad you asked me about that.

(sculpture creaks) (sander whirring) A friend of mine, who had been here many times early on, she came here once and she said, "You should have a sculpture spectacular."

Here I am 30 years later.

- [Sandy] Have you ever seen an object on the side of the road and thought, "Huh, that looks familiar, that thing looks like a person's face, or that object looks like an animal?"

If you have, you probably brushed it off and went about your day.

But for artist Paul Bobrowitz, that's where his artistic process begins.

(soldering iron crackling) - I remember working as a carpenter and sitting there eating my lunch across from the cabinets that I'd installed and seeing the pattern in the wood and thinking, "That looks like an owl," in that pattern, "That looks like an owl," in that pattern, and coming home and making an owl over the ensuing weeks.

- [Sandy] The one rule in art is: There are no rules.

Whatever your mind is capable of imagining is possible.

Dream it, pursue it, make it a reality.

- Harry Quadracci said, "Ready, fire, aim."

(soldering iron crackling) Do it, and then see if it worked, and if it didn't, start over.

(soldering iron crackling) - [Sandy] For over three decades, Paul has followed that philosophy.

He takes scrap metal, old appliances, excess industrial materials, things that we regard as worthless and turns them into works of art.

- [Paul] Just because somebody's throwing it away doesn't mean it's garbage.

- [Sandy] Welcome to Spectacular Sculpture.

Spanning six acres, everything at Spectacular Sculpture is made by Paul.

For over three decades, he has let his imagination run wild.

No idea too outlandish.

No project too big or too small.

And the result has produced a collection of art that would fill many galleries several times over.

On this episode of The Arts Page, we take you to the world of Paul Bobrowitz and his spectacular sculptures.

(upbeat music) (bright music) (bright music continues) On a gorgeous fall day when the leaves still had their color, Paul graciously showed us around, telling us about his life and sharing some of the stories behind his work.

Paul, when I see this sculpture of yours, I'm reminded of Atlas.

- It's actually BirdWomanTree.

Rather than being bent over with the weight of the world on her back, she's bent over with the weight of the world as her womb.

- She's bending over backwards.

- She is bending over backwards like our society makes a lot of women do bend over backwards just to get equal treatment.

And there's a bird beak on this side of the head with that human face on the other side of the head.

- I've seen that more than once, like using a head with two different faces on each side.

- I have incorporated that thought all along in my work because I think that we as people have our public persona and we have our private persona that not everybody gets to experience, only those who are closest to us get to see us in a moment of weakness.

But the messages are here.

- [Sandy] Paul grew up in a strict Catholic household, where artistic expression wasn't often encouraged.

- That Catholic upbringing never valued art, really.

- To earn a living, Paul started working with his hands.

Before becoming an artist, he was a carpenter.

If you have the carpentry skills and you're building furniture, you already have that foundation, you're just now applying it artistically.

- Right.

And in that process, my Catholic upbringing, black-and-white way of thinking changed to shades of gray.

- [Sandy] After becoming an artist, he developed an abstract Zen-like approach to his art.

- I seriously believe in the collective unconscious.

I think that many, if not most or all, of my ideas and influences come from whatever, however you identify the collective unconscious.

And many times, it feels like I'm just the tool, that my hands know what to do, because it's just coming through me.

- [Sandy] When people ask him how he thinks of his ideas, he says... (soldering iron crackles) he doesn't.

- A lot of times, it's just, it feels like the metal is just screaming at me.

A piece is just talking.

It's telling me what it wants to be.

There are ideas out there looking for someone to bring them to fruition.

If it comes to you and you don't respond in a timely fashion, it will go and find someone else.

- [Sandy] The themes of his work often deal with our environment and the massive amount of trash society creates.

- [Paul] As I understand it, (soldering iron fizzing) we send the majority of our scrap metal over to Asia, where they reform it into plate and bar, and then send it back over here for our companies to make products with it.

But we're increasing the amount of pollution by trucking and shipping everything over to Asia and then bringing it back over to be reworked here.

So I like to short-cycle that and grab it out of the dumpster before it gets shipped to Asia and make something cool-looking out of it.

(soldering iron fizzing) - [Sandy] His art can be found all over Wisconsin.

You might have seen his work dozens of times and not have known it.

Tell us about the Three Stooges.

- My neighbor went to school with Russ Klisch, who founded Lakefront Brewery.

And Russ had a mission to take their Curly, Moe, and Larry Three Stooges painted brew tanks and have them made into sculptures.

And he was out with my neighbor for dinner and he mentioned that he was looking for a sculptor, and my neighbor said, "Hey."

So that's how we made that connection.

(lively music) (metal clacks) - [Sandy] At an age when most are retired, Paul admits he doesn't start as early as he used to or work as late either.

- When I first started full-time in 95, I would be out in the shop till six o'clock at night.

I used to be out starting at eight or nine in the morning.

Now it might be more likely nine or 10.

(soldering iron crackles) - [Sandy] That doesn't mean he's going to stop creating art anytime soon, Paul is always waiting for that next idea and will never stop chasing that creative spark.

(lively music continues) (bright music) Thanks for watching The Arts Page.

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