Sculptures of Iron

On Monday April 29th we were over in Western Washington State staying at an RV Park called Lake Mayfield RV Park and Resort. We wanted to go see Mt St Helens but the roads accessing the mountain were closed due to snow and probably would not be open for another couple of weeks or until mid-June depending on which road you were looking at.

We decided to take a ride and see an Iron Sculpture site that we had seen in a brochure, it sounded fascinating. It was up near Elbe, Washington on a road that leads to Mt Rainer.

On the way there we stopped in Morton at Papa Bear's for lunch. It was a great lunch and we had blackberry pie and ice cream for desert. Wonderful food. The booths were covered in a Hawaiian themed material. We asked the waitress if this was "Papa Koala Bears" cafe and she laughed. It seems the owners purchased them from a location going out of business to save some money even then she said they we really expensive.

We continued north on Highway 7 past Mineral Lake to Elbe where we turned right on Highway 706 and headed a short distance east to the sculpture park called Ex-Nihilo (pronounced "Ex Nee-Hill-o") which according to his web site means something created out of nothing.

You can visit his web site buy using this link - http://www.danielklennert.com/

This is the placard that identifies the Iron Sculpture Park. There is an open area in front of the studio that is open to walk through anytime. The gallery and we assume place to buy things is only open certain times of the year.

Here is the gate to walk though into the area where several metal sculptures are displayed.

This character is located atop the gate that you could drive through when the entire facility is open. The gate was locked when we were there and so we parked out front and walked through the side gate that is shown above.

This motorcycle has a pig face in the front. There are a couple of different motorcycle sculptures on display. The artist and creator certainly has quite an imagination as we shall see.

The large bird-like structure is one example of several such creatures that are scattered about the display yard. Deanna is in the image to provide a size perspective. This would be a big bird.

There is this very large fish that might be a representation of a Salmon. The body is composed of horse shoes, lots of horseshoes. The iron sculptures are of various sizes and dimensions. Some are life size while many are quite larger than that.

This close-up of the salmon head shows the level of detail. Here you can see he even put a visible tongue in the fish’s mouth. Most all of the sculptures had a lot of detail incorporated into the structure.

Is anyone considering a bike ride? Deanna again provides size perspective. One would need to have very long legs to ride this contraption and once up and rolling would never want to stop. How the heck would you get off of this? Best be wearing at least a good, real good crash helmet. However with one pedal revolution you could cover a lot of ground.

This bird is another example of the sculptures. As mentioned above there are several bird-like creatures located here. They are all different in structure and all quite fascinating.

The cowboy complete with drawn pistol guards the donation boxes that we will look at next. The cowboy has a skull and jaw bones for detail along with several other interesting items.

Trying not to offend anyone’s political affiliation these donation boxes let you choose. I am not sure what if anything different happens to the money. We cannot imagine the artist would throw money away just because it was associated with a political affiliation that the artist did not approve of.

Remember the old broom horse that you rode as a youngster? This is a larger and seemingly more durable model of that wooden broom stick complete with a crafted horse head.

There are several horse structures in the display. This seems to be a rocking horse.

Here is another horse, slightly more elaborate in construction and detail. Most of the sculptures are rusted iron in color and texture. Some have added color, as in this horse, which is derived from the parts used in construction.  

This is the Big sea horse in the display. It, as the fish shown above, is composed largely of horse shoes, lots of horse shoes. It is a large sculpture and quite imposing.

The spider was over in the side of the area all by itself. It seems to have the correct number of legs, eight, for a spider

When you visit his web site that is listed above and here - http://www.danielklennert.com/ you can see more examples of his work. He has pieces scattered around the country, not all of them here in the park. His objects are very well done and quite fascinating.

We hope you enjoyed this brief look around at the iron sculptures.

Let us know if you have any questions or comments. All the best - George & Deanna