Today we’d like to introduce you to Eric Magnuson.
Hi Eric, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
Growing up just outside of Baltimore city, I fell in love with drawing and shading throughout grade school and eventually discovered a true love of colors through working with Prismacolor pencils starting when I was 15. Artschool seemed unobtainable because of the massive debt I knew I would incur if I enrolled, so I instead went into the workforce after high school and chose to quietly develop my artistic passions for my own simple learning and expression.
Through spending a lot of time in the goth, renfair, Burning Man, rave, and other alternative cultures, I developed a diverse sense of influences ranging from Victorian and steampunk to New Age and psychedelic. By my late 20’s, I chose to make a major change in my life and move to Tucson, Arizona and restart in a new city where no one knew me. I lived in AZ for seven and a half years and ended up enrolling into the welding program at the local community collage so that I could learn to use my hands and fix things; skills that I knew I lacked and was very self-conscious about.
After three years of schooling, I graduated with my Associates degree in Welding and Fabrication in Spring of 2021, during the height of the pandemic. I had a small TIG welder, a little bit of scrap, and a lot of time so I decided to start practicing sculpture using whatever I could find. I also began searching for steady sources of scrap metal and came across a local bike shop that agreed to give their scrap to me. The shop is called Roadrunner Bikes so I decided to challenge myself and create a full sized roadrunner sculpture for the shop as thanks. It was difficult and much more intricate than anything I had attempted, but I truly fell in love with both the process and results. I was hooked.
As my style and skills with metal grew, I felt a deep-seated calling to bring my passion for complex color work into my new medium of metal. This was challenging in that dissimilar metals, such as copper and steel, do not typically weld together. However, with some metallurgic know-how and a lot of practice, I became comfortable forming and bonding these various metals together.
After graduation, I spent the next three years in Tucson slowly developing my style with metal work, building my skills, and eventually got into my first galleries. Things seemed to be picking up for me and going well until my fiancee of five years and I split up just over 24 hours before the Key Bridge collapse. Being from Dundalk and living less than two miles from the bridge for most of my life, I did not really know how to process such personal loss and the loss of my city’s monument all at once.
I immediately made plans to move back with my parents in Maryland to help them care for my 88 year old grandfather with dementia. They had scarcely been able to leave the house, let alone enjoy any sort of their well-earned retirement, in over a year since my grandmother had passed and they moved my grandfather in with them. They also agreed to give me the two-car garage to convert into an art studio to make my sculptures and grow my business while restarting as a “new” artist in Maryland.
Since completing a hard move and a long drive back to Maryland in May of 2024, I have been very busy working with my family to continue the challenging work of care taking and working to further develop and refine my style as a recycled metal artist. I have started to create larger works and i desire to one day have my art displayed in high-end lobbies, restaurants, public buildings, and universities. It is my sincerest hope to inspire not only future generations of artists and metal workers, but also to inspire thought and study from all who view my work.
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
It has not been a smooth road.
most are covered in my story but some of the main extracts or further details are:
Three years of welding school, no days off between school and work days for three full years. I ran out of money and only was able to stay enrolled in school with help of several scholarship programs. I graduated with a 4.0 GPA, top of my class.
I worked out of other people’s workshops for the last 3 years I was in Tucson and that is always very hard.
It was very difficult to come back to Baltimore after nearly a decade away and have to essentially restart both personally socially and professionally as an artist.
Learning the ropes of starting my own business and everything that goes with it.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
I am a formally trained welder and self taught artist who specializes in very intricate metal sculpture using all scrap metals of all kinds. In developing my style, I regularly look at other metal artists from around the world to see what they are creating and then thinking about how I can incorporate a technique or visual element that I like while also considering how to differentiate my work from theirs.
The most prominent way I set myself apart and what I am most proud of is the incorporation of lots of many non-ferrous metals, such as copper and brass, welded or brazed in throughout my pieces. I regularly flame color copper or stainless steel elements to bring out diverse rainbows of colors and accents throughout my sculptures. Welding and TIG brazing these various different metals is very uncommon in the scrap metal art world as it requires a great deal of skill and metallurgic know-how so essentially, many of the tradesmen that know how are not artistic and most artists with the vision do not possess the skills to do what I do.
In looking at many other metal artists, I also realized that most of them create their sculptures out of single planes or “skins” of metal while I have opted to make great use of negative space and layering of parts to encourage deep study and intrigue into my work. To reward those who take the time to study one of my sculptures, I also build in many “Easter eggs” for people from all walks of life. These can be anything from spark plugs and transmission gears for automotive people, bike parts for bicyclists, various tools from all trades, as well as things like cookware and silverware for those that may not know anything bout tools. One of my favorite things in life is having someone look at my sculpture and begin listing off all the parts they recognize and see what stories they evoke.
Furthermore, I love to incorporate crystals into various pieces. These range from large steampunk style lamps that use big selenite towers, polished agate domes, or even lampshades made of beautiful onyx for their light sources. Beyond lamps, I have found joy in designing tables that use large slabs of crystal for the table top or even using small polished agate slices to bring a colorful and natural element to butterfly sculptures. Blending scrap metal with crystals has helped me to reconcile both the New Age and gothic/steampunk influences that have both helped to define me as a person.
Do you have any advice for those looking to network or find a mentor?
Talking to strangers has always been my go-to throughout my life. Everyone is a stranger until you speak to them and you never know who someone else knows.
I wish I had better advice but networking has been one of my largest challenges in art and finding a good mentor as a self taught artist can be very intimidating. Social media has been a failure for me but I still find success through volunteering in my community when possible and showing my work to anyone whenever the opportunity presents itself even when Im simply out and about in the world.
Pricing:
- Small sculptures $300-$900
- Crystal Lamps $400-$1000
- Medium/Lg sculptures $1200-$8000
- Custom Large work $10k and up
- prices dont need to be displayed in the article, this section is a little confusing to me
Contact Info:
- Website: https://magnusmetalart.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/magnus_metal_art/
