Sculpture Artist
Larry McCaffrey
Larry McCaffrey considers his art to be contemporary in nature.
A working lifetime spent in the demanding craft of industrial sheet metal may not seem like the ideal avenue to a successful second career as an artist, but
to Larry, it has worked out precisely that way.
He first became interested in contemporary designs in high school. A
career in metal working gave him the skills to create his metal art.
The work as well as the art demand both high craftsmanship and
intricate combinations of angles, curves and tangents to solve the
complex three-dimensional problems. You can see the result in
Larry's stainless steel sculptures with the free flowing lines.
From initial pieces in basic steel and wood, his contemporary
repertoire has expanded to stainless steel and powder coated mild
steel. The process begins with an idea gleaned from sketches. The
next step is a full scale pattern from poster board pieces which are
fit together. The cutting of the stainless steel with a plasma arc
followed by forming the welding with TIG (tungsten inert gas) or MIG
(mechanical inert gas) and then the finishing. All of his work is weather proof and may be displayed outdoors as well as indoors.
Larry McCaffrey has presented his work in many shows on the Olympic Peninsula in the last three years,
with awards in most of them. Some of his work has been sold to
fellow artists. To him, this is a greater compliment than a ribbon in an art show.
"Regardless of what I named the pieces," Larry says, "you may see it as something else. Let your imagination tell you…Eye of the beholder…."
