He had one of his Sweet Gum Balls in an art show in Cave Creek, Arizona. They’re inspired by the tiny round seed balls that fall off sweet gum trees. Kevin shows another sculpture created with railroad spikes he calls Shitake Agaves because they look like a cross between growing Shitake mushrooms and desert agave plants.Īnother type of sculpture he creates with railroad spikes is Sweet Gum Balls. FireStick was inspired by a desert plant of the same name. He shows his sculpture TwistTie, which has a lot of movement.Īnother sculpture, FireStick, was commissioned for the end of a house’s long hallway to block a lovely view of their garage. He also is inspired by the railroad spikes he finds, some perfectly straight, but others with curves and bends that provide flowing movement. Kevin started making Ocotillos, and shows a photo of a living ocotillo growing in the desert. They’re just so much fun to work with! Some railroad spikes are perfectly straight while others have twists and turns and bends in them where they got hit by a train when they were working their way up out of the railroad ties. One of the things he discovered early on was railroad spikes. His second attempt turned out to be the perfect longhorn.Every now and again, Kevin likes to work with found metal rather than new metal. His first attempt did not look right, so he added ears to the face and created an elephant. The steer has more detail than some of the other pieces and the challenge of creating the face excited him. His favorite creation is a Texas longhorn. For him, I made bookends of people reading,” Wood said. “His son is a drummer, so I created a drummer, and his daughter runs marathons all over the U.S., so I created a marathon runner placed on a piece of wood shaped like the United States. One, a friend of his, wanted gifts for his children. Wood’s designs include a photographer, a baseball player, a man proposing to a woman, a bicycle rider, an elephant, a coat rack and more.Įach spike art piece takes about 5 to 6 hours to create, and according to Wood, “It’s worth it.” He’s had clients in Los Angeles and New York, but most of his clients are local. “It just so happens that a railroad spike is just about 6 inches long and I am 6 feet tall, so I am able to make the hands and other features to scale,” Wood said. The first pieces that Wood created were golf figures in varying positions, and he was able to make each figure to scale. Purely self-taught, he has never taken a welding class–a fact that surprises many people. After retiring, Wood took that man’s advice and began testing his skills. who was a metal worker and gave Wood some advice regarding welding: purchase a good welder. He was interested in welding, however he had never learned the skill. Wood has always enjoyed working with his hands to create woodwork pieces and restore cars. “I find the spikes and repurpose them into something cool.” “I’m rescuing these railroad spikes,” explained Wood. He calls his art pieces “railroad spike rescue projects.” Nowadays, Wood finds railroad spikes and heats, cuts, bends and shapes them to form artistic pieces like figurines of people playing sports or doing activities, animal figurines, and items such as coat racks and wall art. Wood retired after 40 years in the accounting/banking business. “Retirement is great! It took me all of about an hour to get used to it,” laughed Wood, who is 64 years old. Wood wears a cap similar to his spike characters. Artist Jim Wood in his shop with one of his favorite spike sculptures of a longhorn steer.
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