ARTIST

Bill Drum was born and raised in Miles City, a ranching community in eastern Montana. He attended Cornell University, the University of Montana, and the American Graduate School for International Management. He has lived and worked in Sao Paulo, Brazil, Mexico City, New York and California. Bill and his wife, Carol, now live in Montana, where he has his studio.

"I collect my raw material - my palette of colors - at Montana salvage yards where heavy equipment of enormous size pick up, crush, and put into huge piles, old cars, farm machinery, oil drums, kitchen appliances, and various industrial detritus no longer useful in today's world. These hill-size mounds of scrap and salvage are a rich bonanza of artistic raw material for me, and provide me with colors and textures not achievable with new materials.

"Using an oxy/acetylene torch and a plasma cutter I cut the pieces into appropriate sizes, and bend them into shape by hand and hammer or with the needed leverage of larger tools. I weld them into place on my sculptures with a MIG wire weld welder, I often use a resin finish which provides a glossy, glass like appearance to the salvaged material.

"I indicate the provenance of the various metals used in a particular piece, when I can determine where they came from. Old avocado, white, almond colored kitchen appliances; Shell oil drums, yellows and reds, old farm and ranch machinery weathered for decades in severe Montana summers and winters; old, or recently wrecked automobiles and trucks; discarded metal signs; worn out water heaters; air conditioners; rusted through steel roofing and siding, are among the many sources that comprise my palette.

"I strive to make pieces that are unique, have unity, good color, interesting juxtaposition, animal dignity, and whatever meaning and mystery the baggage and imagined history the old and cast off metals might imbue them with."