Evergreen welder turns junk into metal art

If you look left as you cross the bridge over the Flathead River headed towards Evergreen, you’ll see one of Wayne Hill’s distinctive sculptures: “Junkyard Art” spelled out in mufflers welded together.

It’s an exemplification of Hill’s unique style — taking what most would consider to be junk and fashioning those metal pieces into works of art.

The yard around Hill’s Evergreen workshop is littered with his creations: small metal men with nuts and bolts for eyes and metal coils for legs; bird baths with bases created out of vintage hand drills and a slew of shovel-based faces with plier handles for smiles.

“This piece here, I found this in the alley about three years ago,” Hill said, pointing to a basin on one of his larger bird baths that he’d welded to a rusty ice auger. It was originally the bottom of a large barrel and he’d purchased it from the previous owner for $15.

Most of his pieces seem to come to him — bits of scrap he finds in an alley, or occasionally buys from second hand stores or garage sales. He’s been making found metal sculptures for years and every once in a while, he’ll even come home to a pile of metal in his yard, left by a well-meaning local resident.

“Part of the fun is the treasure hunting,” he said. “You just don’t know what you’re going to get.”

The 64-year-old retiree was drawn to sculpture at an early age, inspired by an uncle in his teens. Hill became a professional welder and did mostly structural work — anything from high beams to railings. After retiring, he decided to turn his torch to more creative pursuits.

Hill started out welding together birdhouses and later branched out into faces, animals and even plant life. Soon Hill’s pieces outgrew his available space.

“You can only give so much away to your relatives … so, I started going to farmers markets and discovered that so many people liked it,” he said. “Little kids would run up and go, ‘oh wow.’”

He sold metal sculptures from his home, at the Kalispell Farmer’s Market, and for the past eight years, at the artist’s co-op, Sassafras, on Main Street in Kalispell.

“If I sell nothing, that’s fine. People come along and enjoy it,” Hill said “I don’t have to make a living at this so any money I make kinda goes back into that or I have a little extra for family.”

At any one time he’ll have between 10 and 15 sculptures in the making, and is often inspired by individual metal pieces themselves— coils that would make good legs, a rusted box for a body.

“See that coil of metal over there?” Hill said, pointing to a pile in the corner of his shop. “It’s a snake for cleaning out someone’s toilet or something — I see it as curls for hair.”

For Hill, the joy is in the creative process — in hunting for parts and pieces and making something beautiful out of nothing.

“A lot of this stuff, people just throw in the garbage,” Hill said. “[I enjoy] creating something out of nothing; creating something out of a piece of junk.”

Reporter Mackenzie Reiss may be reached at 758-4433 or mreiss@dailyinterlake.com.