Around eight years ago Julian Smith was a frustrated dairy farmer looking for an outlet.
As a self-taught welder who had only ever really repaired stuff around the farm, Julian decided to weld himself up a fire pit – a pit which turned out to be a 2.5m high, grim reaper inspired, sculptural master piece and not something you would find in a normal backyard.
“After I made the firepit, I thought I might keep going and then made my next piece and it went from there - each piece tends to get bigger and bigger,” he said.
Julian’s most recent sculpture ‘The masks we wear’ has just been accepted as a feature piece for an exhibition at the Melbourne International Flower & Garden Show and he couldn’t be more excited.
“I have been working on this piece for three months and we only found out last week it was accepted, so we decided to fly home early from our holiday and put on the finishing touches,” Julian said.
The sculpture stands 5m tall by 3m wide and is predominantly made from hundreds of old railway pins welded together. The pins were cleaned up in a concrete mixer with some river rocks and water to take the rust off.
Julian said the piece dives into the battle humans face with different emotions.
“It is about the gap between what we show and what we are actually going through, and I wanted to capture the hidden stories behind our everyday masks,” he said.
Initially the piece was going to be made up of individual sculptures but partner Allison Yeates suggested welding them all together.
“I fell in love with the idea and even though it made the sculpture a lot bigger than I initially thought, I went for it,” Julian said.
Julian began with a base on top of his worktable and as it grew, he moved it to the floor and worked his way higher and higher up the sculpture.
“I reckon I spent 300 hours over summer working late in the night to avoid the heat. I still have to add some more pins and make it structurally sound but I am nearly there now,” he said.
He said welding the different parts was heavy work because there is so much weight in a pin.
“Some parts were really heavy but we got there in the end and I am really looking forward to people seeing my work, I think it will be really cool,” Julian said.
He said a condition of entering the show is that the piece has to be for sale.
“It is really hard to put a value on something like this,” Julian said.
“There is the historical value in the pins, then there is the time and labour and it is really interesting to talk to different people about how they value something like this.”
Julian said if you had of called him an artist eight years ago, he would have just laughed.
“I never ever thought I was creative - I can’t even draw,” he said.
“Everything I do comes straight out of a rough idea in my head and I just go from there.”
Julian is always on the lookout for scrap metal and old bits and pieces and he always grabs what he can, whenever or wherever he sees it.
“You cant beat old stuff with all the dints and imperfections. It really tells a story and I love that I get to create something that preserves all the hard work and history from generations before,” he said.
“Old metal has its own imperfections which makes it perfect for sculpture.”
Allison has also developed a love for old bits and pieces.
She said their first date consisted of a drive out to Finley where she found herself in a hole on someone’s farm dragging out fence posts.
“I am very proud of Julian’s creativity and his acceptance into the show and I can’t wait to see what people think,” she said.
The Melbourne International Flower & Garden Show opens Wednesday, March 20 and runs until Monday, March 24.