(soft country music) (metal clanging) (electricity buzzing) - There's a story with all the materials that I'm using, there's a history there, and I think those stories are important.

What attracts me to working with metal was that it was accessible.

Your appliances all have pieces that I've taken apart and put into the sculpture.

I don't know if there's magnets in my eyes or it's just something I've been doing for so long that like, that's basically all I see.

Finding a wrench, you see it as a wrench.

I see a talon there.

I see the stamping on the metal that could be cut up, could be rearranged, could be integrated into the piece.

And I think that that gives it some kind of connection to its past life.

Otherwise, why don't we melt it down, make a form, and pour a mold?

But then you lose all of what this material is and where it came from.

We are throwing away a lot.

It has that references to our society and what we do with things.

And I hope having a new purpose will give some kind of hope and inspiration to a direction that we can go.

When I was around 19, I took a sculptural welding course and that's how I found metal.

I loved the immediacy of how the steel was put together, and you got structure right away.

I went to the San Francisco Art Institute and I double majored in painting and sculpture.

I sold my second piece that I ever made, and I sold the fourth piece, and then I kept selling.

So, you know, that's kind of when I thought, this could be a career.

The creative part, I'd say, is about 10%.

The rest is somewhat craft and a lot of labor, but the most rewarding aspect of that is watching the audience or a viewer really engage and be inspired by the work.

How guys doing?

Welcome to my studio.

- We're in awe.

- Impressive.

- This is absolutely amazing.

- Thank you!

This one over here has tons of my grandmother's things.

She had a whole collection of antique things.

- Oh yeah.

- And this was her, the old silverware.

- Aw.

- Cute.

- This is how I thought my whole life, you know, and being dyslexic and not that great with words, like, I spoke in a different language, basically.

It was like a visual language.

- I love this.

- Oh wow.

- An avalanche.

(electricity buzzing) - Currently I am making a public piece for the North Williams district in North Portland.

I'm making a nine foot saxophone to honor the history of the neighborhood, which is an old jazz neighborhood.

And then also in that neighborhood there is a thing called the Wishing Tree, where people write their wishes on a price tag and they'll hang those wishes on a tree.

So what I have done to commemorate that piece is to make that price tag as the base.

And then atop that price tag base will be an owl.

The owl represents the one that's going to take the wishes to be granted.

At this point in the project, we are finalizing the owl's position on the base.

So we are trying to get it balanced in the right position, picking it up with its center of gravity where we need it to be.

And I think we are on target as far as balanced front to left, reading good in the front to back.

I think I'm going to start to weld that on there.

(electricity buzzing) And we have solid structure.

Woo!

So as you can see, it's completely a part of the piece and now it's never coming apart.

Not in our lifetime, anyway.

(car whooshing) (soft music) - [Attendee] Oh man.

Oh my God.

- Good!

You too.

- Amazing.

- [Attendee] I can't believe it's happening.

- Today's the installation day for the two sculptures that I've made for the Williams District, for the Festival of Lights specifically, but also on a permanent collection here.

(machine whirring) (metal clanging) - I've been here on this street for 17 years.

I've seen some of his artwork around town.

Oh, that!

- Yeah.

- Felt really perfect for our space.

He came up from our feedback with the owl and the wish.

- We were looking at possible ways to rebrand the district and bring in light elements.

The reason that this is a saxophone is that this was originally one of the most important jazz districts in the country, which I think he's encapsulated really beautifully in his sculpture.

And it's really one of the things that I think that's going to end up making our district really special, where art is really part of the community.

- And all these things that I make are very personal.

I can go into very personal experiences and very personal thoughts while I'm making them.

That's how I get through my day.

That's how I cope with the world.

And hopefully, I'm making something that will be an inspiration and make the day better, because that's what we all need.

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