Local artists to light a fire in Winterfest competition

Some fine functional metal sculpture will be featured in the annual fire pit competition at Winterfest in Bend over Valentine's Day weekend. Ken Scott's Imagination Gallery and Ponderosa Forge & Ironworks will both have entries in the contest, which will be judged on Saturday, February 14.

Scott is hard at work on his creation, bringing his usual intensity to the task.

"Creativity is all about showing up," he said. "Inspiration is easy, but sweat comes hard. True art is an intensely personal endeavor; It's about the love of the work and the love of life."

Scott's work, like his persona, is larger-than-life.

He describes his work thus: "Exciting projections, swirling in Victorian, stolid Gothic, delectable Deco and injected with one frighteningly wild imagination. It's Captain Nemo meets Luke Skywalker, where the past meets the future!"

Scott's got his eyes on the prize at Winterfest.

"That's my goal," he said, "to take first prize - and yet in the company of some seriously respectable sculptors."

One of those is Jeff Wester and his crew at Ponderosa Forge & Ironworks.

Wester and company built a cauldron that hangs from a weathered tree. The tree was "hammered around and welded together in several pieces," Wester explained. "We put a rusty patina on it." The cauldron "incorporates a lot of traditional metalwork. The cauldron is all built using traditional methods."

Wester is a storyteller, and he always has some sort of tale in mind with his creations. Scott is highly intuitive.

"I don't even know when I start what I'm gonna get," he said. "The work bench does a lot of talkin'. I just want to see it unfold."

Scott will have two booths featuring his wide-ranging metal work - and his legendary Cinderella carriage will be there, too.

Wester will be conducting demonstrations at a blacksmith's tent.

For Wester, participating in the competition is about being part of a community and "for the public to see the different types of craftsmanship that goes into these metal sculptures."

For more information on Winterfest visit http://www.oregon

winterfest.com. For more on Ken Scott's Imagination visit http://www.kenscottsimagination.com and visit http://www.ponderosa

forge.com for more information on Wester's work.

Author Bio

Jim Cornelius, Editor in Chief

Jim Cornelius is editor in chief of The Nugget and author of “Warriors of the Wildlands: True Tales of the Frontier Partisans.” A history buff, he explores frontier history across three centuries and several continents on his podcast, The Frontier Partisans. For more information visit www.frontierpartisans.com.

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