Creative Breadcrumbs #4

The elemental magic of metalwork

This is my artwork, made in my spare time around 2017-2019. Everything you see is hand drawn, with pens and markers, on paper.

My career as a furniture maker didn’t last long. After one year I was done with the whole affair. It was a learning experience, but it never really clicked for me. I gave my letter off resignation and left the same day. Looking back it was the right thing to do.

At this time, I signed almost everything I made with ‘TreSko’, meaning a wooden shoe written in Norwegian. I just found it fitting, since I had move to Holland where the wooden shoe is ingrained in the culture. I don’t use that alias anymore.

At this time, summer of 2017, I was thinking of going back to school. I was looking for ways to get back into graphic design, or becoming an artist, by taking a masters degree in something or other. I remember specially one day I was auditioning to get a place in one of the art schools in Rotterdam. I showed the judge this drawing of a fish.

She said: “I like this, why don’t you just go home, drink some beer, and continue drawing?” So that’s what I did. I went back home and continued drawing.

Still I needed some “real” work to pay my bills. Having worked as a furniture trainee sparked my interest for steel, and welding. And having spent my last months in the steel workshop of the company, it was logical to continue in that direction. There is something very exciting about working with steel. You are using all the elements, creating something useful out of raw materials. There is something magical about it. It is also very hard, dirty and dangerous work. I was all in.

I think working as a welder for almost eight years made me a stronger and better person. I definitively have more patience when it comes to achieving goals now, than back then. And I have to hand it to the Dutch welders and workshop owners that let me in, first with no experience, and let me learn a whole new skill and trade.

This is a weekly publication released to document my work, and for your enjoyment.