VL Studio Visit with Milton Wagner

Milton Wagner – Aspen Ironworks
Master Craftsman
www.AspenIronworks.com

 The crisp smell of aspen trees has always reminded me of the Colorado high country cowboy life.  I was born and bred in a small mountain town in southwest Colorado.   The only thing I ever wanted to do was be a cowboy.  My mother had a picture of a three year old me with a rope in my hand chasing after a chicken.  From chickens, I moved on to dogs, calves and occasionally my sister.
I was lucky enough to come from a farming family tree with the occasional cowboy branch.  I grew up on stories told to me by my two favorite cowboy heroes - my great uncle Clem & uncle Henry. Other cowboys I idolized were John Wayne, Louis L’Amour, Tom Mix and the boys from the Ponderosa.

I’ve often been asked why cowboys are my idols and I guess it really boils down to what a cowboy stands for.  The cowboys I was lucky enough to know were loyal, honest and hardworking.  
When I was in high school, I divided my time between metal shop and cow punching for local ranchers. Whenever the ranches needed equipment fixed, I was the go-to person because of my metal-working background.  I learned early on how to use my imagination to envision metal as a great medium.

When I was eighteen, I broke my first horse.  That horse was my best friend and partner in crime for the next 36 years.  Right after high school, I met my lovely wife. While we raised our three children, I worked as an iron worker for money and moonlighted as a cowboy for fun.  In my spare time, I’d gather leftover metal, wood and horseshoes for future art projects.

I started Aspen Ironworks, an eco-friendly metal art studio 15 years ago because I wanted to work for myself & focus more on my art pieces. I work in two main areas - a studio/workshop on the back of my property and under a large oak tree overlooking the horses.  I use the oak tree forge when the weather is too nice to stay indoors.  I use a handmade forge, several pairs of tongs handed down from my grandfather to father and then to me, and two anvils - a 200 pound workshop anvil and an 80 pound vintage farrier anvil which I can transport if I need to.

I started out with individuals cowboys made from leftover rebar and quickly graduated to western scenes.  I thought about what does a cowboy do? A cowboy’s life is simple. Cowboys rope, they ride, and they drink.  My western pieces reflect this lifestyle. I do bar scenes, I do rodeo scenes and I do cattle drive scenes.

I feel my work is unique for three main reasons.  First, my cowboy knowledge is authentic. It's important to me that the story I tell is the right one.  I've been in these situations I craft out of metal.  I've been bucked off a bronco and know which part of the cowboy is last to touch the horse. I've roped cows and know the correct angle of the rope loop. My cowboys hold it at the right angle for roping a cow on the first try. I’ve been on top of the mountain when it's cold and freezing and the only thing you want is a cup of coffee around the campfire. 

Secondly, I believe in doing lifetime work.  I’m putting my name on each of these pieces & I want the people who buy my art to have something that will last them for generations to come. There are metal workers out there who just tack their pieces together and that irritates me. If you're going to do a true work of art, you need to craft it right. Thirdly, I believe in leaving a better world for my children and grandchildren than I had which is why 95% of the materials I use are recycled, reused, or eco-friendly.  I gather used horseshoes from my farrier friends & old metal bits from local farmers and scrap metal shops.  I even have a page on my website for local residents to schedule scrap metal pickups.

Every piece of my art has a unique story.  For example, each mirror used on my bar scenes is a rearview mirror from a scrapped car or truck.  My chuck wagon base is the bottom of an old broken rototiller.  Recently I created a steampunk bug with ball bearings I had received when we replaced a steel ball mill in a gold mine. The ball bearings start out 8 inches in diameter and they roll around and crush up ore to extract the gold.   By the time I got them, they had been worn down to about an inch across. I saw those and thought they would make great eyes.

I'm really excited about a trio art piece I'm working on right now. I've got a cattle drive scene. I've got a chuck wagon, and I’m in the process of designing the campfire scene. After driving the cattle all day, there's nothing more a cowboy wants than to take a load off and grab a cup of coffee around fire. I’ve already decided how to make the fire. I have some discarded copper plating which I will melt down and then beat back up into flames.

Even though I’m retired from day to day ranching, I still get to play cowboy occasionally.  Twice a year I head to Colorado. I help drive my son’s high-altitude grass-fed cattle up onto their mountain grazing lands in the spring and back down in the fall. Driving the cattle among the aspen trees inspires this old cowboy to come home and preserve that vanishing way of life through lasting sculptures.

“He who works with his hands is a laborer.
He who works with his hands and his head is a craftsman.
He who works with his hands and his head and his heart is an artist.”
~Francis of Assisi