Recreating the wild wild west out of discarded
farm equipment, South Dakota-based artist
John Lopez’s amazing metal
sculptures will blow your mind! Check them out below:
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| Source: John Lopez Studio |
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Sculptor John Lopez is a product of a place. His people’s ranches are
scattered along the Grand River in northwestern South Dakota—not far
from where Sitting Bull was born and died. Not far from where thousands
of buffalo were killed during the westward expansion of settlers and
gold miners. In the bone yards of
Tyrannosaurus rex and grizzly
bears. Since farmers and ranchers populated this chunk of reservation
land, real cowboys have been roping and branding and sheering and haying
and harvesting.
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| Source: John Lopez Studio |
John’s own forte lies in gentling colts and perfecting their
bloodlines—and he started his celebration of them by sculpting in clay.
Capturing every nuance, every muscle, in this land where business is
still conducted over a cup of coffee and “neighboring” is a way of life.
Somehow that way of life—where times seems to have stood still—has seen
the transition from horsepower to vehicles. The rusted carcasses of
discarded equipment stand testament to generations of labor. And the man
who knows blood lines has picked through them, choosing the elements of
the past—the actual implements that plowed the soil or cut the grain or
dug the dinosaur—and created the curve of a jaw, the twitch of a tail,
the power of a shoulder.
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| Source: John Lopez Studio |
Eco-friendly and full of personality, these welded figures perfectly
capture the iconography of the American West — a bison, a horse with a
plow, a Texas Longhorn — a past reconfigured out of recycled materials.
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| Source: John Lopez Studio |
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| Source: John Lopez Studio |
Lopez began his career as a bronze sculptor, but realized the
versatility of scrap metal when he forged a family grave for his
deceased aunt. It creates a unique aesthetic, a kind of mishmash punk
sensibility in his beautiful and imposing artwork.
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| Source: John Lopez Studio |
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| Source: John Lopez Studio |
It pays respect to the past while also playing with the idea of renewing
and reconfiguring familiar imagery into something completely different.
Where have you seen a cowboy riding a dinosaur before?
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| Source: John Lopez Studio |
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| Source: John Lopez Studio |
“My favorite part about these pieces is the texture,” explains Lopez. “I
just start grabbin’ stuff from the pile and welding it, in and if you
weld enough of the same thing on over and over it creates this really
cool texture that I’ve never seen in these kinds of pieces before. And I
think that’s what draws people in.”
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| Source: John Lopez Studio |
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| Source: John Lopez Studio |
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| Source: John Lopez Studio |
Blurring the line between organic, artificial, and symbol, Lopez’s art
is sure to leave an impact! It’s striking how well they blend into the
Midwestern scenery.
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| Source: John Lopez Studio |
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| Source: John Lopez Studio |
Join John on a tour of kitchens and scrap piles, barns and grain
elevators, cemeteries and workshops—hosted by the people of the prairie.
Meet Uncle Geno and brother-in-law Stuart, and scrap collectors from
near and far. Listen carefully. There’s a story in the wind.
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| Source: John Lopez Studio |
