iN PHOTOS: Metal artist makes sculptures out of cutlery and horseshoes near Summerland
A stainless steel fabricator by trade, Mark Wong of Osprey Lake near Summerland followed his artistic passion and left the industrial life 25 years ago.
He moved from Vancouver to a farm, made a studio out of a woodshop and has been creating custom metal sculptures ever since.
“While I was fabricating for restaurants I also had a nice niche with artisans, engineers and architects in Vancouver and was always pulled to do more art,” he said. "I gave up all the industrial stuff and changed my life.”
Wong takes his metal sculptures to exhibitions, markets and shows across the country and in the B.C. Interior. Every piece is original, other than some art pieces made for the Christmas season.
He showcases pieces at a gallery at the end of his driveway where it reaches the Kettle Valley Railway.
“People camp around here and they come see my art,” Wong said. "People come walk around the lake and stop at the gallery.”
One of Wong’s favourite sculptures is of a beaver. He said people from northern B.C. saw the beaver at the gallery and purchased it right away because their own home had beaver chew marks on it.
Wong said his work studio is “chaos,” with an “incredible amount of buckets full of forks and spoons, spatulas and horseshoes all separated.” He is never in need of more materials for his next art piece.
“People show up with bags of cutlery,” he said. “Retired people go to thrift stores and hospital auxiliaries and collect more for me. Some people show up with pieces of bent rebar and I make something out of it.”
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Wong has a summer schedule of art events he will be appearing at throughout the Okanagan, Kamloops and the Shuswap. Those details will be announced on his Facebook page when details are finalized.
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