Joel Haas' Garden Art.

Joel Haas makes whimsical garden decorations, he said:

I make whimsical animals for the garden. Most pieces are welded and forged together from scrap steel parts and painted with rust-resistant primer. The final colors are applied with sign-painters' lacquers which won't fade in sunlight.

Some people have asked me if there is any serious or deep meaning to my work. I say, "I hope not. There're already enough serious and deep meanings in the world to keep thousands of art critics busy."

Checkout his artworks - I particularly like the birds: Link

Update 3/28/06: Joel wrote and suggested a couple other interesting links:

I really think my more interesting web site is www.sculpturewalk.org since it is an "open source" art project. That is, I work with my neighbors to exhibit my sculpture. I can make pretty much any size art work I want to and know it will have a place to be exhibited. This has enabled me to be free of having to deal with galleries, curators, etc. because now my neighbors and neighborhood is my gallery and my neighbors are my curators and helpers in moving, cleaning, and showing my artwork since much of it is in their yards on permanent loan.

I encourage other sculptors to try out this model --adapt it, let me know how it works, etc. Frees us from the gallery and size limitations.

Download the 6 page walking guide and if you're ever in my neighborhood, walk the tour--it's up 365 day a year dawn to dusk.

One of the neatest things about the Neighborhood Sculpture Walk is some Chinese art curators visiting relatives here in Raleigh saw it in late 2004 and I wound up being invited to Taiwan three times to create sculpture there! (You can see the photos of the first trip at www.joelhaasstudio.com/NEWS.htm and the other two trips at www.flickr.com/photos/joelhaas

Stories behind the creation of some of my sculpture (and just plain odd ball stories, too) can be found on my blog at http://joelhaasstories.blogspot.com