Artist Creates Life-Size Animal Sculptures Out Of Nuts, Bolts, And Scrap Metal

While most of us throw away old vehicle parts and flatware in the landfill, Aloha, Oregon-based artist Brian Mock transforms scrap metal into incredible outdoor sculptures. He gathers and assembles used and abandoned items, such as screws, nuts, and bolts, into human and animal shapes.

Mock has been dabbling with a variety of artistic mediums since he was a child, but it was in the 1990s that he discovered his passion for upcycling art. He trained himself to weld so that he could see his artistic concepts as metal sculptures.

He’s now working on a menagerie of metal animals, including dogs, cats, and larger-than-life lions, made entirely of recycled materials. Mock meticulously selects each scrap metal piece to match his animals’ forms—dog tails are portrayed as flexible metal chains, and floppy ears are made from huge sheets of bent steel.

“Giving old, ordinary things a new life as one sculpture is an artistically challenging, yet rewarding process,” Mock adds.