 |
| Mighty dino: Steve Heller stands atop his 20-foot 'T. Wrench' in Kingston, N.Y. In 2007, the Tyrannosaurus was part of the
Kingston Sculpture Biennial, a public art show. E.G. Fulton |
Spaceships and dinosaurs – from the junkyard?
For kids: Artist Steve Heller sculpts amazing art out of old tools and junked car parts.
from the February 26, 2008 edition
Page 2 of 3
As a teenager and young adult, Mr. Heller picked up odd jobs wherever he could find them. At different times, he sold homemade candles on the street; he was a chauffeur, a waiter, and a bellboy; and he even farmed chickens and turkeys!
While he was around all that poultry, he studied the movements of the birds. Later, when he was building furniture and sculpting full time, he imitated the birds' motion as a dancer might and then translated that motion into iron and steel.
He produced a flock of rake-headed, thresher-toothed, saw-blade-tailed birds that look as though they could attack any moment.
The creatures don't actually move around, but they are posed as though they're in motion.
He calls his metallic birds the children of the dinosaurs, in keeping with the scientific theory that our real live feathered friends are the great-great-great (and many more "greats") grandchildren of the dinosaurs.
Ordinary to outstanding
Whimsy runs deep in Mr. Heller's personality. He creates things for sale, for show, and for the pure joy of turning a wacky idea into reality.
He has a knack for spotting beauty in objects that others have tossed away. He calls his active imagination "a gift." There's never a morning that he doesn't wake up with a new idea. "Steve doesn't march to a different drummer; he has his own orchestra," says his best friend of 30 years, Martha Frankel.
He's always in motion, too. He leaps on and off his giant sculptures, looking for any flaws.
Several years ago, he toppled off the nose cone of his "Roswell or Bust" spaceship. It's a tubby, 11,000-pound contraption made of a cement mixer and various ancient car parts. It stands complete with happy alien astronauts visible through the windows.
His spaceships run from jumbo-size craft like "Roswell" to smaller rockets made from the housings of car headlights.
RSS feed
