Art in Metal; presenting The Sun & The Moon

We are full time artists; we make our living from our art. We are the metal artists at the Whidbey Art Gallery. Rather than a couple of 9 to 5 jobs in an office, we work at home and on the road at a wide range of shows. We tend to work all hours of the day and night. Our jobs are not limited to creating our art. Just like the process at the Whidbey Art Gallery, we do it all. We create, build, sell, do the books, file the taxes, find outlets and deliver the end product.

Cold, hard, heavy, straight, round, square, flat, curved, solid, hollow, and usually gray. These are just some of the characteristics of the material we use to create our kind of art. So, just how do you create art out of something with these features? You can start with a touch of insanity and take on the challenge with some muscle, skill, talent and perseverance. Adding an understanding of what the material will do helps guide the finished product.

​Like the gallery, we work both independently and as a team. As a team we create, collaborate and cooperate. It’s difficult to tell the creative bug to wait until tomorrow to bother you with an idea. Ideas come in all shapes and sizes and sometime sat the most inopportune times. Once the kids are in bed and asleep, we do a lot of sharing, even in the middle of the night. We are always looking for more time. When the muse calls you need to answer. But it’s hard work.

​Sometimes we have an opportunity to design something original for a client’s needs.  We enjoy the challenge of taking something from a vague idea to a completed piece. Much of our art is functional, combining art and use. In this case, we took a big flat sheet of metal, some square stock and turned it into two gates. Depicting the sun on one gate and the moon on the other, we added some custom hinges to add another dimension to these art pieces.

Let us know what you think about the finished project.
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Jandellyn and Johnathan Ward

Winfield Designs