Iron Horse

image by glenn buttkus

Iron Horse

“Sculpture occupies the same space

as your body.”--Anish Kapoor.

Along the busy highway

heading up toward Mt. Rainier,

an artist, a metallurgic iron sculptor,

has his studio--

a very large warehouse-like barn,

that has to be lit with floodlights

& open hay loft doors, where

he creates huge sculptures

of everything;

horses, giraffes, ostriches, roosters,

bulls, saddles, pioneer conestoga wagons,

motorcycles with skeleton riders,

T-Rexs, tortoises, raptors, cows, bear,

elk, deer, moose, bison, even Sasquatch--

all life-sized or bigger, made from

scrap iron gathered from all corners

of the world, old car fenders, grills,

bumpers, radiators, wheel rims,

brakes, drive shafts, pistons,

steering wheels--broken discarded

factory machinery & steam shovels

& earth movers & D9 Cats--gears

with broken teeth, from fist-sized

to 8 foot tall behemoths--old stoves

& ovens from the 30’s, washing machines,

refrigerators, fans, truck winches, doors,

& hood ornaments & license plates--

with a cluttered scrap yard fenced in

behind the barn, piled high with fresh

junk, laced with sparkling patina;

& every finished sculpture, scattered

about on over an acre, 

are just bare metal, 

covered with delicious rust, 

nothing ever painted or stained,

standing naked & proud.

One of my favorites is the Iron Horse,

no not one of the five actual horse

sculptures made of iron, but a life-sized

train locomotive, made up of commercial

boiler parts, with large stunning rivets

dotting the rotund surfaces, tall iron-

rimmed wheels off farm equipment,

with bed frame rails connecting them

together, metal pipes decorating every edge,

wrought-iron spines, a towering smoke stack

made up of severed metal barrels, and

the metal bindings off wooden barrels,

the empty housing of a stolen street clock

comprising the locomotive’s large headlight,

a cow-catcher comprised of cut-up car doors,

with an engineer’s cab made up from re-cut

out slabs of flat steel plates.

Not only are there dozens of sculptures

to look at, walk around, touch, & enjoy, but

there are also patios, porches, & lawns

littered with decomposing bicycles, children’s

red wagons, toy cars, cribs, wringer washing

machines, antique stoves, fireplace hardware,

several rocking chairs and fat tea pots

with plants growing out of them, & pieces

of furniture made from elk, deer, & moose antlers--

an abstract Wonderland, art to interact with,

the life’s work of a genius, a welcoming space

where one can wander for hours for just

a five buck donation shoved into a shark’s mouth

made up from old clutches & pressure plates;

sometimes the sculptor is actually there, working

in the open barn, usually 12 feet high up on a

pipe scaffolding, perhaps welding a head onto

another dinosaur--

you can wave at him, but he has his welding mask

down & pretends not to notice you, just focusing

on the torch flame & his next weld--so you just

leave him to it, smiling on the way back to your car,

wearing, hugging the magic you’ve participated in. 

Glenn Buttkus

Posted over on dVerse Poets Poetics

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