Published: May 25, 2008 09:00 pm         

Silhouettes of steel

Artist crafts wildlife scenes from metal

DANVILLE — Silhouettes of deer, fish and birds lined one section of Charlotte’s outdoor dining area on Saturday.

Westville’s Frank Gabehart, the artist and craftsman who created them, presided over the display with his son Joshua and daughter Jodie Myers. The exhibit also included a weather vane and several yard decorations,

“We thought of doing a demonstration,” Gabehart said, “but it could be too dangerous. I work with hot, molten metal. Sparks fly when I’m grinding. There’s a lot of noise from the air compressor I use.”

These dangers don’t stop the tool and dye maker with 40 years of experience. For the past 20 years, he’s worked at Danville Metal Stamping. He considers his metal art a hobby, but his work can be seen in and outside many homes and even under the goal post at Westville High School.

“That was a family project,” Gabehart said about the 8-by-8-foot silhouette of a tiger’s head.

“We created it in 2001, when Josh played football, and donated it to the booster club.”

Josh lives and works in Kankakee now, but helps with some of the sheet metal wildlife art his father produces.

“I’m still second in command,” the youngest of Gabehart’s children said. “I do some grinding for him and also some of the painting.”

The creations are covered with black rustproof paint, which makes the ones displayed outside impervious to the weather.

The family enterprise also includes Myers, who handles sales and office duties. She also searches for patterns that Gabehart might use to create his work.

“I buy some patterns, but I draw them, too,” he said. “I always doodled. I started drawing when I saw a picture of a deer on a magazine cover that inspired me.”

An avid outdoorsman, Gabehart hunts, fishes and shoots skeet and trap. His work reflects what he’s seen on these trips and also includes his customers’ interests. Silhouettes of domestic animals, family names and home addresses round out his reper-toire.

Gabehart works primarily with sheets of 4-by-8-foot unfinished sheet steel. He lays out the patterns and hand cuts the designs with an electric arc plasma cutter.

For large projects, like a 16-foot gate header of a forest scene that includes animals and trees, he uses two sheets of steel.

He considered the work on display at Charlotte’s as prototypes for custom orders.

“I hand cut each pattern when I have an order, so no two are really alike,” Gabehart said.

One of his weather vanes will soon grace Charlotte’s patio. Owner Dave Quick ordered one that features a squirrel, one of the restaurant’s regular outdoor “customers,” in its center.

This exhibit was the second in what Quick plans will be a series from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. every Saturday throughout the summer months. He’s contacted several artists and craftspeople and hopes to finalize a schedule for them soon.

“Every day you have to reinvent yourself all over again in this business,” Quick said about adding art exhibits to the live entertainment Charlotte’s offers outdoors on Friday and Saturday nights.



FYI

Frank Gabehart plans to exhibit his metal artwork at June’s Arts in the Park. He can be reached at 267-7627.