Articles
Eagles, Horses, Dogs: All at American Steel Art
Vince DeCuio is a well-muscled 49 year-old with a twinkle behind his round glasses; a benevolent overlord in a working area someone described as "two man caves:" his welding shop and his sprinkler shop. And he can spend from seven in the morning 'til ten in the evening between these two buildings on his property north of Elizabeth, creating art out of steel.
There's a cross on Delbert Road and County Road 166, Singing Hills Road, that is made out of railroad ties that DeCuio welded together: a stark testament to Christianity that shows strength in faith as it touches the sky: DeCuio's art does that without frill and with an honesty towards form.
"When we were motorcycling in Northern California last summer, my wife, Raeann, saw a horse made out of horseshoes," he says, "and we took a lot of pictures of it. I knew I could do that, but better." And he did.
He begins with an image of his subject. The horseshoes he gets for trade with a farrier: "I make him a sign; he gives me his old horseshoes."
"Each piece, even a rearing horse, is photographed because each is unique. Maybe the head is supposed to be seventeen inches; it might be seventeen and a quarter or even eighteen and a half:" it's true to the image.
Vince DeCuio got started welding at Lakewood's Bear Creek High School and just took to it, parlaying his welding skills while still a teenager, for three years with a lawn sprinkler/irrigation company. He decided, then, to establish his own company: Sprinkler Master, which he ran for the next 19 years. Although it's odd, at first, to think of a welder running a sprinkler company, when one realizes the amount of plumbing involved, it makes sense. Also, welding wasn't the only job he did. He was an electrician, a plumber, a mechanic, an engineer, and a landscaper.
"But it's murder as you grow older," he says. "I can't bend my knees like I used to, and when I get up-" he bends over like a Kokopelli figure.
So he sold part of the business to a former employee, and bought his five acres full of trees, and has been on that site for eight years.
"I still do sprinkler stuff," he says, "but nothing north of Highlands Ranch. He mentioned a church that has rewarded him with work as it grows: both for his welding as well as his expertise with sprinklers, saying it is an "excellent relationship," but he keeps wanting to focus on what he does best: welding and creating.
The idea of creation came to him in 2008, when a friend called and asked if he'd ever seen what a plasma cutter could do. After some time online, DeCuio purchased one in Colorado City, where they're made.
It's a fascinating machine: a large steel pit beneath catches waste metal when the plasma cuts from above, guided by a Computer Aided Drafting (CAD) program to create figures in steel sheets. When it's running, DeCuio opens a door to let all the smoke and filings escape outdoors. The computer that runs the plasma cutter, sits in its own filter box. "Grit and filings and dross aren't nice to computers."
With the plasma cutter, he can create both indoor and outdoor art: Kokopellis, addresses, names, outlines of trees, and dogs-lots of dogs, large and small. He cut out a couple of golden retriever Christmas ornaments, washed off the coating, then sanded them with a brush-stroke texture, then, using copper sulfate, DeCuio turned the ornaments to a shiny copper. "I also use my torch to create colors," he points out deep purples and yellows on an address sign, measuring four feet across. What he will do is plant two 4x4 posts with grooves at their tops, then slide the edges of the sign into the grooves: a functional and decorative use of steel and wood.
Just about every piece he makes gets a final coating of an auto urethane, which keeps its shininess and lustre.
On the plasma cutter, DeCuio can create pieces for 3-D images, using waved 1" wide pieces of 12 gauge steel from which he carefully builds his subjects layer upon layer. An example of one of his eagles can be seen in Donna Warner's front yard, atop the trunk of a tree, secured by 12" lag screws: wings fully extended, a full six feet across.
When Ms. Warner said, "You're an artist," DeCuio shrugged, smiling. He sees himself as more of a mechanic. "I don't create it. I reproduce what's already there," he explains.
Shakespeare did that, too. So did a lot of other artists, making it their own. Vince DeCuio is an artist.
You can see examples of Vince DeCuio's American Steel Art at many local events and at dog shows. If you are looking for the perfect gift for someone or yourself, remember, Vince DeCuio artworks are available for commission.
http://www.new-plains.com/Archives/Biz-AmericanSteelArt.html
Vince DeCuio is a well-muscled 49 year-old with a twinkle behind his round glasses; a benevolent overlord in a working area someone described as "two man caves:" his welding shop and his sprinkler shop. And he can spend from seven in the morning 'til ten in the evening between these two buildings on his property north of Elizabeth, creating art out of steel.
There's a cross on Delbert Road and County Road 166, Singing Hills Road, that is made out of railroad ties that DeCuio welded together: a stark testament to Christianity that shows strength in faith as it touches the sky: DeCuio's art does that without frill and with an honesty towards form.
"When we were motorcycling in Northern California last summer, my wife, Raeann, saw a horse made out of horseshoes," he says, "and we took a lot of pictures of it. I knew I could do that, but better." And he did.
He begins with an image of his subject. The horseshoes he gets for trade with a farrier: "I make him a sign; he gives me his old horseshoes."
"Each piece, even a rearing horse, is photographed because each is unique. Maybe the head is supposed to be seventeen inches; it might be seventeen and a quarter or even eighteen and a half:" it's true to the image.
Vince DeCuio got started welding at Lakewood's Bear Creek High School and just took to it, parlaying his welding skills while still a teenager, for three years with a lawn sprinkler/irrigation company. He decided, then, to establish his own company: Sprinkler Master, which he ran for the next 19 years. Although it's odd, at first, to think of a welder running a sprinkler company, when one realizes the amount of plumbing involved, it makes sense. Also, welding wasn't the only job he did. He was an electrician, a plumber, a mechanic, an engineer, and a landscaper.
"But it's murder as you grow older," he says. "I can't bend my knees like I used to, and when I get up-" he bends over like a Kokopelli figure.
So he sold part of the business to a former employee, and bought his five acres full of trees, and has been on that site for eight years.
"I still do sprinkler stuff," he says, "but nothing north of Highlands Ranch. He mentioned a church that has rewarded him with work as it grows: both for his welding as well as his expertise with sprinklers, saying it is an "excellent relationship," but he keeps wanting to focus on what he does best: welding and creating.
The idea of creation came to him in 2008, when a friend called and asked if he'd ever seen what a plasma cutter could do. After some time online, DeCuio purchased one in Colorado City, where they're made.
It's a fascinating machine: a large steel pit beneath catches waste metal when the plasma cuts from above, guided by a Computer Aided Drafting (CAD) program to create figures in steel sheets. When it's running, DeCuio opens a door to let all the smoke and filings escape outdoors. The computer that runs the plasma cutter, sits in its own filter box. "Grit and filings and dross aren't nice to computers."
With the plasma cutter, he can create both indoor and outdoor art: Kokopellis, addresses, names, outlines of trees, and dogs-lots of dogs, large and small. He cut out a couple of golden retriever Christmas ornaments, washed off the coating, then sanded them with a brush-stroke texture, then, using copper sulfate, DeCuio turned the ornaments to a shiny copper. "I also use my torch to create colors," he points out deep purples and yellows on an address sign, measuring four feet across. What he will do is plant two 4x4 posts with grooves at their tops, then slide the edges of the sign into the grooves: a functional and decorative use of steel and wood.
Just about every piece he makes gets a final coating of an auto urethane, which keeps its shininess and lustre.
On the plasma cutter, DeCuio can create pieces for 3-D images, using waved 1" wide pieces of 12 gauge steel from which he carefully builds his subjects layer upon layer. An example of one of his eagles can be seen in Donna Warner's front yard, atop the trunk of a tree, secured by 12" lag screws: wings fully extended, a full six feet across.
When Ms. Warner said, "You're an artist," DeCuio shrugged, smiling. He sees himself as more of a mechanic. "I don't create it. I reproduce what's already there," he explains.
Shakespeare did that, too. So did a lot of other artists, making it their own. Vince DeCuio is an artist.
You can see examples of Vince DeCuio's American Steel Art at many local events and at dog shows. If you are looking for the perfect gift for someone or yourself, remember, Vince DeCuio artworks are available for commission.
http://www.new-plains.com/Archives/Biz-AmericanSteelArt.html
Deborah Grigsby
Some people like metal bands.
Vince DeCuio likes metal art.
With a glistening smile, a thick head of hair and a personality that simply radiates, DeCuio is a metal sculpture artist who creates custom-made two- and three-dimensional works from steel and other scrap metal.
He works from his home in Elizabeth, where he has two large workshops equipped with a variety of welding equipment and a specialized plasma cutter that enables him to recreate intricate designs from something as simple as a client’s own drawing.
“I have clients that come in here and spend the day with me,” he said. “And we’ll work together to create a piece that matches what they have in their head. I like to work with the customer and talk about what it is they envision the piece being.”
Wrapped in a tan leather welder’s apron, looking akin to some sort of modern-day blacksmith, the 49-year-old Pennsylvania native says he enjoys what does, and gets his inspiration from others.
“I really don’t like to call myself an artist,” he says blushingly. “I think of myself more as a mechanic … a mechanic that sorta helps people bring their visions to life from metal.”
And he does just that by using a variety of metals, chemical applications and drying techniques to create an interesting and distinctive patina on the metal,
DeCuio did not finish high school, but before he quit, he was taking three welding classes a day.
“I don’t know, I just liked it,” he said. “There was just something about making metal melt and watching it flow, I guess.”
DeCuio, who also has run a successful lawn and sprinkler business for more than two decades, says things happen in life for a reason and “everything just falls in to place.”
With more than four years as a metal sculptor under his belt, DeCuio is now looking at selling his sprinkler business and embracing what he feels he was meant to do.
He says he got into metal sculpting though his skills in welding, and while he’s never had an art class, he was pretty good with a torch.
“I had most of the equipment here already,” he said. “I had used it to make repairs on much of the tools I used in my sprinkler business.
But it was after he invested $18,000 in a computer-aided plasma cutter that DeCuio realized the endless creative possibilities that now lay before him.
But perhaps one of his most distinctive pieces is a life-size horse made entirely of old horse shoes.
He said he began using them as a medium when a well-meaning ferrier friend brought him a bucket of old horseshoes as scrap metal.
Some of DeCuio’s other creations include large three-dimensional cactuses and crosses, many which sell across the county.
“Life doesn’t always have to be a struggle,” said DeCuio of his experience as a sculptor. “Many people fight the way they’re wired and don’t always end up happy. I say, just follow the flow.”
http://www.ourcoloradonews.com/elbert/news/sculptor-follows-life-s-flow-through-molten-metal/article_206d68fc-f14c-11e1-b0c5-0019bb2963f4.html#.UEAWL--mGPs.email
Some people like metal bands.
Vince DeCuio likes metal art.
With a glistening smile, a thick head of hair and a personality that simply radiates, DeCuio is a metal sculpture artist who creates custom-made two- and three-dimensional works from steel and other scrap metal.
He works from his home in Elizabeth, where he has two large workshops equipped with a variety of welding equipment and a specialized plasma cutter that enables him to recreate intricate designs from something as simple as a client’s own drawing.
“I have clients that come in here and spend the day with me,” he said. “And we’ll work together to create a piece that matches what they have in their head. I like to work with the customer and talk about what it is they envision the piece being.”
Wrapped in a tan leather welder’s apron, looking akin to some sort of modern-day blacksmith, the 49-year-old Pennsylvania native says he enjoys what does, and gets his inspiration from others.
“I really don’t like to call myself an artist,” he says blushingly. “I think of myself more as a mechanic … a mechanic that sorta helps people bring their visions to life from metal.”
And he does just that by using a variety of metals, chemical applications and drying techniques to create an interesting and distinctive patina on the metal,
DeCuio did not finish high school, but before he quit, he was taking three welding classes a day.
“I don’t know, I just liked it,” he said. “There was just something about making metal melt and watching it flow, I guess.”
DeCuio, who also has run a successful lawn and sprinkler business for more than two decades, says things happen in life for a reason and “everything just falls in to place.”
With more than four years as a metal sculptor under his belt, DeCuio is now looking at selling his sprinkler business and embracing what he feels he was meant to do.
He says he got into metal sculpting though his skills in welding, and while he’s never had an art class, he was pretty good with a torch.
“I had most of the equipment here already,” he said. “I had used it to make repairs on much of the tools I used in my sprinkler business.
But it was after he invested $18,000 in a computer-aided plasma cutter that DeCuio realized the endless creative possibilities that now lay before him.
But perhaps one of his most distinctive pieces is a life-size horse made entirely of old horse shoes.
He said he began using them as a medium when a well-meaning ferrier friend brought him a bucket of old horseshoes as scrap metal.
Some of DeCuio’s other creations include large three-dimensional cactuses and crosses, many which sell across the county.
“Life doesn’t always have to be a struggle,” said DeCuio of his experience as a sculptor. “Many people fight the way they’re wired and don’t always end up happy. I say, just follow the flow.”
http://www.ourcoloradonews.com/elbert/news/sculptor-follows-life-s-flow-through-molten-metal/article_206d68fc-f14c-11e1-b0c5-0019bb2963f4.html#.UEAWL--mGPs.email