GARDEN

GARDEN BUGS

GARDEN BUGS

Retail Price: $9.95

These bug sculptures are hand cut from recycled 50 gallon steel drums. Both ends of the drum are removed and placed inside of the remaining cylinder along with scrap paper, dried banana or sugar cane leaves. It is set on fire, to burn off any paint or residue. When cooled, the drum is cut down the side and flattened out to create a "metal canvas" of approximately 3' x 6', upon which the design is drawn. Using hammer, chisel and various primitive tools, the shape is cut and the various decorative patterns are pounded into the metal, creating a unique and treasured piece of primitive art. The finished design is coated with a protective finish. Can be hung indoors or outdoors.

Size: 5 1/2" x 5 1/2"

ID#: SM352 INDIVIDUAL

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ARTIST PROFILE

Brutus Jean Sylvionel

from Haiti

“It wasn’t my goal to be an artist as I am today. I wanted to be an engineer or a doctor,” Brutus Jean Sylvionel discloses honestly. “But my mother died in 1989 when I was 4 years old. By the time I was 8, my family didn’t have enough money to survive. My father taught me the iron cut.”
In time, he left his father’s shop to apprentice with Jean Claude Soulouque and Nicolson Mathieu. “They pay me for my working, teach me how to manage the tools and they push me up to never fall down.”

When his father died in 2009, Brutus Jean was left to support his 5 brothers and four sisters. He is able to do that, “with God’s help. God gives me inspirations that I discover in the sea and in the sky.” His dreams are heartfelt, “I just want to take care of my family as I am supposed to, and help other people who can’t grow up in this art.”