Artist Transforms Old Farm Equipment into Incredible Animal Sculptures Like None You�ve Seen

Recreating the wild wild west out of discarded farm equipment, South Dakota-based artist John Lopez�s amazing metal sculptures will blow your mind! Check them out below:


Source: John Lopez Studio
Sculptor John Lopez is a product of a place. His people�s ranches are scattered along the Grand River in northwestern South Dakota�not far from where Sitting Bull was born and died. Not far from where thousands of buffalo were killed during the westward expansion of settlers and gold miners. In the bone yards of Tyrannosaurus rex and grizzly bears. Since farmers and ranchers populated this chunk of reservation land, real cowboys have been roping and branding and sheering and haying and harvesting.

Source: John Lopez Studio
 John�s own forte lies in gentling colts and perfecting their bloodlines�and he started his celebration of them by sculpting in clay. Capturing every nuance, every muscle, in this land where business is still conducted over a cup of coffee and �neighboring� is a way of life. Somehow that way of life�where times seems to have stood still�has seen the transition from horsepower to vehicles. The rusted carcasses of discarded equipment stand testament to generations of labor. And the man who knows blood lines has picked through them, choosing the elements of the past�the actual implements that plowed the soil or cut the grain or dug the dinosaur�and created the curve of a jaw, the twitch of a tail, the power of a shoulder.

Source: John Lopez Studio
Eco-friendly and full of personality, these welded figures perfectly capture the iconography of the American West � a bison, a horse with a plow, a Texas Longhorn � a past reconfigured out of recycled materials.

Source: John Lopez Studio

Source: John Lopez Studio
 Lopez began his career as a bronze sculptor, but realized the versatility of scrap metal when he forged a family grave for his deceased aunt. It creates a unique aesthetic, a kind of mishmash punk sensibility in his beautiful and imposing artwork.

Source: John Lopez Studio

Source: John Lopez Studio

 It pays respect to the past while also playing with the idea of renewing and reconfiguring familiar imagery into something completely different. Where have you seen a cowboy riding a dinosaur before?

Source: John Lopez Studio

Source: John Lopez Studio

 �My favorite part about these pieces is the texture,� explains Lopez. �I just start grabbin� stuff from the pile and welding it, in and if you weld enough of the same thing on over and over it creates this really cool texture that I�ve never seen in these kinds of pieces before. And I think that�s what draws people in.�

Source: John Lopez Studio

Source: John Lopez Studio

Source: John Lopez Studio

 Blurring the line between organic, artificial, and symbol, Lopez�s art is sure to leave an impact! It�s striking how well they blend into the Midwestern scenery.


Source: John Lopez Studio

Source: John Lopez Studio
 Join John on a tour of kitchens and scrap piles, barns and grain elevators, cemeteries and workshops�hosted by the people of the prairie. Meet Uncle Geno and brother-in-law Stuart, and scrap collectors from near and far. Listen carefully. There�s a story in the wind.

Source: John Lopez Studio


Manning, Jake. "Artist Transforms Old Farm Equipment into Incredible Animal Sculptures like None You've Seen." Shareably. Accessed November 07, 2016. http://shareably.net/john-lopez-scrap-metal-sculptures/.

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