Steel, Copper, Nickel Plate

Made from metal parts carefully culled from the industrial world, the Tin Men sculptures represent a mythological science fiction, striking neo classical poses with a sly self-conscious humor. Imagine a world somewhere between Frederick Remington’s wild West, Alexander Calder’s Circus, and the Star Wars of George Lucas, and you will find the Tin Men, taking their place in the traditional art paradigm of the figure contextualized in a particular landscape.

Metal alloy aircraft parts, hip replacements, and machine tool cutter heads. Some of these parts immediately suggest a particular element of a sculpture. Others wait their turn in my studio, where I pass my eye over them until their shape inspires a new interpretation. The electric arc of my welder is the spark that brings each Tin Man into being, but I have always suspected that when no one is looking they take on a life of their own.

Sadly, the scrap metal yard where I found all these wonderful parts got bought out by the corporate giant of scrap metal, Metal Management, and now narrow eyed men wearing hard hats make sure that vagrant artists like myself are not allowed in.

Gar Waterman

Metal - Tin Men > Artillery Piece