I love to take a thought and turn it into a piece of art that can be looked at touched and pondered by others. I have enjoyed building things from the time I was a young boy growing up on my family's farm on the Snake River in Southern Idaho. My father had a full fabrication shop set up with all the welders cutting torches and other equipment necessary to repair or build what we needed. My father taught my brother and I how to weld when we were 10 or 11 years old and soon found all his metal he kept for repairs and building things welded together.
This didn't make him very happy the next time he needed a piece and had to cut it all apart to use it. Fortunately we did put our new found talent to use later. At age 14 we build a set of tank racks for one of our tractors and I got to do most of the welding. Later in high school I built an oak dining room table for my grandparents that won first prize in our regional competition. My grandmother still uses the table to this day.
After high school I went to a yearlong welding program at Boise State University and worked welding for about a year before joining the army. I spent three years at Fort Campbell Kentucky in the 101st airborne infantry. After the army I moved to Seattle Washington and worked for a year or so fitting and welding at a few fabrication shops before going to work for a company that was geared more towards construction. They did everything from structural steel to ornamental and architectural metal work for hi-end residential and commercial projects. They also did seasonal displays for the Nordstrom stores. Having just spent three years in the infantry. I was more interested in doing the structural steel work, that seemed more macho and manly. After working there for a couple of years my interest turned to the decorative side of the metal work. I started building the elaborate staircases and other architectural metal work that led into working with the designers, architects and builders on the projects. After working there four years I ventured out and started my own company doing ornamental and architectural metal work for mainly hi-end waterfront homes.
The quality of the work we produced from my shop was frequently referred to as art, because of the quality of the craftsmanship. This always made me proud, but not completely satisfied. By the time I was done paying the employees the taxes and all the other expenses that go along with running a business I was exhausted physically and psychologically. I had my business in Seattle for seven years before moving to Fountain Hills Arizona in 2001. Since then I have been focusing more on the sculptural side of metal work. Nature has a big influence on my work from the metals which are supplied by nature to the sites, shapes, smells, sounds, tastes and textures that nature provides us all the time. It is these constantly changing consistencies that keep things interesting to me. I feel my art is like a snapshot of my thoughts and emotions over these things hammered and fashioned into my expressions of it. I hope you enjoy my work as much as I enjoyed creating it.
Give Don a call at: 480-471-2419 or send an email
See more work at his web site
