I recently stumbled upon the beautiful work of Joe Pogan online, an Oregon artist who creates metal sculptures of animals from “found objects”. I enjoyed reviewing his web gallery so much that I thought I’d share here, simply because a pleasure shared is a pleasure doubled.

As a bird lover, I’m particularly fond of his works depicting birds. Here are some examples:

Artist’s Statement

I create animal sculptures using various “found metal” objects like old watches, sprockets, nuts and bolts. The stranger the piece of metal the better, since the end goal is an eye-catching, fascinating amalgamation of metal with odd nooks and crannies you can explore for hours.

I start by welding a frame to make the general shape. Then I weld or braze the metal objects one at a time, to form the outer shell of the sculpture. I use a “blending” technique that leaves no space between the objects, so the sculpture looks solid. This allows me to hide interesting objects all over each piece, which enhances the excitement of discovery. Some of the works are mounted on a hardwood base that I finish with natural oil.