Heavy metal artist rocks landscape
- Sr Perspective
- Mar 4
- 7 min read
South Haven man rediscovers his passion for art in retirement
by Bill Vossler
Mike Orr’s first love was art.
“When my parents, bless their hearts, knew I wanted to pursue art, they sat me down and said people in the arts never made any money. It wouldn’t work for making a living. So my dad put me in the Marine Corps,” he laughed. No art there.
After the Marines, Mike ran the worldwide global infrastructure for General Mills. Still no art opportunities.
“After I retired,” the rural South Haven man said, “I was grateful and blessed that I still had this passion and love of art that I had as a kid and could come back to.”
Turning to artistic endeavors is fairly common, but Mike’s artistic passion looks a little different than most. He expresses himself by welding metal sculptures--like a Tyrannosaurus Rex, camels, a bison, giraffes, and more.
After retiring, Mike decided to learn all the welding processes. “I wanted a good understanding so I would do it right and not hurt myself or anybody else. So I received a two-year degree in welding, learning all about the three main processes of working with metal: Stick, or Shielded Metal Arc, MIG (Metal Inert Gas), and TIG (Tungsten Inert Gas). So I could make my art.”
Stick is the oldest, and what most people think of when they think of welding. “I use it for fabrication on larger pieces of metal. In MIG a metal wire is pushed through the welding gun so the arc penetrates with metal being welded, and shielded with an inert gas. MIG is convenient, but you can’t do some things you can with Stick or TIG.”
TIG is tungsten inert gas welding. “TIG produces a high quality, clean smooth weld, and is the most versatile, though it requires a lot more training, and takes more time to master.”
One of the first pieces he ever did for competition in college was using MIG. “It was a small welding man, and was a gold winner in Minnesota Skills USA and a bronze winner nationally. Once I learned the process I could really apply the art to it, and I can do all sorts of things welding. I love welding in general and especially with MIG because of the art I can make.” Having worked in the virtual world for so many years, he really enjoys his art. Now everything I do with my hands is tangible and can be seen, unlike in management and technology.”
At first he thought of welding different creatures as a business and selling them. “After I pursued that for a while, I realized it started to become a job. I’m a blessed man. I don’t need to sell my artwork to keep the lights on.” So he does it for fun, working many hours a week.
One unusual aspect about his sculptures is they are all made out of recycled materials. “Mostly old farm machinery pieces,” he said.
He retired at 55, and started sculpturing in 2018, a year after he retired. “It requires me to attend auctions to find old farm equipment or pieces. Beside my barn, I’ve piled tractor hoods, axles, old kid wagons, metal bed parts, anything made of metal. Inside I have five-gallon buckets full of wrenches, sockets, and this and that, you name it I’ll probably use it and weld it together.
Next for him will be a brontosaurus. “And that type of stuff to add to what’s at the end of the driveway. It’s a passion for me, not a moneymaker. I take something recognizable as junk, and make say a camel’s head out of it, hacking it together and seeing what turns out.”
What turns out is quite magnificent, if you drive by the end of his driveway on Wright County Highway 2.
“I don’t promote my sculptures. When I finish something new, I drag it to the end of my driveway, and people in town wink at me, and say, ‘There’s something different out there now.’ I’m happy people like my work, which I enjoy, but I’m driven by the art and creativity. That’s all I really need.”
For the really big pieces, Mike puts in eight to 10-hour shifts in his workshop. “The big giraffe took me the longest. I worked long days on it every day for two weeks because of its size. With the giraffe I took small metal pieces to build the skeletal infrastructure to support that weight, and make the body curvatures. Many people think I just pull a trigger and get a piece welded, but that giraffe is a hundred or more of lineal feet that I put together, with all the sharp edges ground off. I had to learn how to bend the metal with heat. Metal might not seem forgiving, but if you provide heat it will work. If not, take it apart, where fabric and wood are not that way. As an artist, if halfway through I see something isn’t going to work, I say, ‘Nope,’ and put it back together a different way. I don’t always take huge pieces of metal. It’s like a quilt where you sew many small pieces together.”
He said smaller ones take less time. “I don’t do it as a business. The wiring, gas, and equipment is quite expensive, so I can’t charge a cheap enough price to fix people’s thingamajigs. I do sell a few things to buy materials and pay for my hobby, like dogs for $25 or $30, but I’m not making any money. It’s just something that I enjoy it so much. Farmers will recognize steel wheels, specific hand tools, tractors seats, and such on my sculptures at the end of the driveway. People smile when they see them.”
Some people’s reactions are interesting, as with Mike’s welding man sculpture. “That was the first piece I made for the end of the driveway, because I am a welder. I saw in myself the stance, and using the equipment. The sculpture required more than 500 wrenches I purchased from various auctions.”
Some old farmers in their 80s were troubled by the welding man. “They wanted to know why I would waste so many wrenches. ‘Those tools were used for years,’ they said, ‘passed from hand to hand, and weren’t supposed to be used like that.’”
Mike also creates metal sculptures to donate. “The theme of a large organization that supports youths was ‘The Wizard of Oz,’ so I made the Tin Man for them. Many people like the lion, but the Tin Man needed a heart. So I built a life-sized tin man with a lot of recognizable parts, like tractor gas tank for the body, fire extinguisher’s for legs, funnels for a cap. I needed to craft and sculpt the metal, not just glue pieces together. People see it and smile. It was set up at the Capital One Café in St. Cloud, advertising for a live auction.” Note: Capital One is no longer open.
Because of COVID, later fund raisers for this organization became an online auction.
“Because I believe in what they’re doing, I bought the Tin Man and brought it back home. I have done pieces for silent auctions for cancer organizations supporting families dealing with cancer, and other organizations having fundraisers for people in need, including one at Maple Lake for the last nine years. They can raise $500 - $800 per auction. The proceeds go to the Buffalo Hospital cancer ward to be used for families in need of money.”
Mike makes metal sculptures for requests. “Many elderly women ask about a peacock for their garden, but they often back off when they find out it will take a week or 10 days, and say I will probably want too much for it. I’ve done some of that work, and it’s gratifying that somebody wants your idea.”
He makes many smaller pieces, he said. “Like ducks, dogs, deer, fish, people, snowmen, and whatever I think about when I see the piles of stuff in my five-gallon buckets.”
He has also done memorials. “I did them for my mom’s mother, who was a seamstress, and a brother who was a hairstylist. Both used scissors as a main tool, so I did entire sculptures out of scissors.
Mike said his sculptures are usually a byproduct of whimsy. “I loved going to farm auctions and buying things like tractor fenders but not knowing what I was going to do with them. My grandkids love the whimsy of the elephants, the dinosaur, the camel and the giraffe. Every time they look, they smile and know they are at grandpa’s house. My ex-wife liked the giraffe so much after our divorce, so she took it with her. I have another giraffe at the end of the driveway now. When people looked at the sculptures they smile and point at something they saw on it.
Mike said many people post his welding on Facebook, but also stop to see them. “Always, lots of folks stop and take pictures, or when I am mowing people stop and talk to me, moms with five year olds who wanted to stop and see the dinosaur or the animals. I really enjoy it.”
“My joy is to get a smile when someone stops out at the end of the driveway, or giggle at a time when they needed to.”