Published: December 20, 2021

The Metal Tamer

Artist Ryan McCallister ’10 uses steel, fire and electricity to create larger-than-life sculptures that make you wonder: “How did he do that?”

Ryan McCallister ’10 creates most sculptures using Metal Inert Gas (MIG) arc welding.

If you saw Ryan McCallister ’10 put on his leather apron and protective face mask, then set fire to his torch, you might think he was about to do some sort of reckless science experiment or complex industrial repair job. You’d be wrong. He’s actually about to make art. As a welder, McCallister deals with 6,000-degree heat and molten metal, which makes that safety equipment — and a daring spirit — an absolute necessity. 

“You can catch fire and get burned when you do something dumb like grab hot metal with your hands; it’s definitely not for the faint of heart,” he says. “And you don’t want the tank of gas exploding from improper use, and you don’t want to electrocute yourself.” While the act of welding can be intense at times, the artwork it creates can be graceful and serene — something McCallister is drawn to. It just took him a bit of a winding path to discover that. 

SEARCHING FOR A SPARK

Growing up in Louisville, KY, McCallister spent a lot of his time in school drawing. “I wasn’t the greatest student because I always would rather be drawing — it started out with random characters and then I started making little comic strips,” he says. In high school, he discovered other ways to express himself through art, like photography and charcoal. “That’s when it started to solidify in me that I needed to be in a creative field,” he says. “It came natural to me, and I was better at art than most other things.”

But figuring out his exact medium? That would take a little longer. “When I started at The University of Tampa, I still didn’t know what exactly I wanted to do,” he says. “My freshman year, I thought it would be in graphic design, but I found I didn’t like sitting in front of a computer for that long.” He then found studio art toward the end of his sophomore year, so he thought he might focus on drawing and painting. But as he looked around the room, he noticed that the other students were producing work that was way better than his, so he kept searching. “I thought I found it with ceramics, because I loved making forms, but I didn’t like the finishing steps like getting the glaze to look right,” he says. “I couldn’t control it enough and what I had in my head wasn’t coming to fruition.” 

Feeling like he was getting closer, he then tried bronzework. “Bronze is cool because you sculpt in clay, which is something I like, then make a mold of that sculpture before casting it in bronze,” he says. “I was able to control exactly what it looked like.” Then, during his senior year, he discovered welding, and knew he had found the medium he was looking for. 

To practice welding, you hold a torch that burns a gas made up of oxygen and acetylene. The very hot flame heats up the metal so you can bend it into different shapes and join pieces together (as the hot metal pieces cool, they fuse to each other). “I was inspired by welding because you can add, as well as subtract,” he says. “With clay, you can add and subtract, but it’s difficult if the clay has dried out or if it’s been bisque-fired and there is no going back. With marble and wood, you can only take away, unless you’re willing to glue pieces back together. With welding, you can add more metal to your piece and also remove metal from it. And I could get such interesting shapes out of it because steel is so rigid — I could create forms I couldn’t in other mediums.”

The support of two teachers — Jack King ’70, professor emeritus of art, and Kendra Frorup ’92, associate professor of art and design — helped McCallister find his artistic voice. “They encouraged me to not get too hung up on anything and keep exploring and figuring out different mediums,” he says. “Jack was very technical and inspirational, and Kendra appreciated my opinions and would invite me in to critique other people’s art because she knew I’d be honest.”

Ryan McCallister ’10 in front of a series of trail markers he created that were commissioned by the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation for Taliesin West, which was Wright’s winter home in the desert foothills of the McDowell Mountains in Scottsdale, AZ

"When you tell people you’re an artist, nobody takes you seriously or treats it like it’s a real career. But I can confidently say I am an artist now.” – Ryan McCallister ’10

Left to right: Jormungandr’s head, which is one part of a four-part sculpture and made from steel and Arizona river rock; KUR, the 4-foot-5-inch underworld dragon is made from steel, stone, blown glass (eyes) and stained glass (wings); The Griffin is a 5-foot sculpture made from steel, Arizona river rock and blown glass (eyes).

HITTING THE GAS AGAIN

Like many college graduates, McCallister didn’t have his next steps fully planned out when he left UT. “I had a BFA degree in art, but I wasn’t ready to commit to a career yet and wanted to see the world,” he says. “So I went to Barcelona for six months with a friend who was studying there.” After that, he had a brief stint back home in Kentucky before heading to New Jersey to be with his then-girlfriend. 

This was not his most productive time as an artist. “While I was in New Jersey, I didn’t have a lot of space to create, and it was too expensive to rent a shop, so I was biding my time and waiting for my girlfriend to finish college,” he says. 

It wasn’t until they moved to Scottsdale, AZ, near where his parents had relocated, that welding started to take center stage again. “I built a shop out of a two-car garage in my backyard, bought the tools I’d need, like a computer cutter, and started making things like gates, doors and fencing,” he says. “It was a way to make money while I continued to master the craft.” Slowly, he started making more artwork and fewer practical pieces. “It’s taken seven years, but the momentum is actually happening now,” he says. “I’m focusing more and more on my artwork because it’s selling.” 

FUTURE ON FIRE

As much as the studio art classes at UT helped McCallister get where he is now, so did two other classes. “I took a class on mass media and communication, as well as one on art and technology, so I learned how to use the internet to show off my work and promote myself,” he says. You can find his work at mccallistersculpture.com and on Instagram (where he has nearly 5,000 followers) and Facebook (where he’s close to 20,000) at @mccallistersculpture. 

“When I was first starting out in Arizona, I posted my work, videos of how I made my pieces, that sort of thing,” he says. When he posted a video of the Swimming Dragon, “Jormungandr”— which shows a serpent swimming through his front yard made up of metal wrapped around river rocks — he had his first viral post. “I posted a picture of just the head, and it ended up on Reddit’s front page, so I did a 15-second video showing all the parts and a few million people viewed it,” he says. 

It’s no wonder: The piece is, to put it mildly, eye-catching. It’s also a prime example of the kind of art he’s most excited about making these days. To create these sculptures, McCallister creates a form in the shape he wants, then wraps that shape in round steel rods, using the torch to heat the metal up and bend it into curves. After he cuts out the inner form, all that remains is the shell, which he fills with river rocks and welds shut. “I like making them seamless, so you can’t tell where the steel rod starts and stops — it’s one line of steel that wraps around the entire figure,” he says. “I’m currently building a life-size horse using the same style and technique.” 

That change — from fantastical creatures to real-life ones — is a big shift for McCallister. “I have always loved mythical creatures because I can make them look however I want, and nobody will criticize it for having pro-portions that are wrong,” he says. “But now that I’m feeling more confident, I’m tackling more realistic pieces like horses and human figures because I feel like I have the skills and tools to make them look right.” 

As much as he enjoys making river rock pieces, he isn’t sticking solely to them. “I say yes to new things, like working with other artists and architects, because I like getting out of my comfort zone,” he says. “I just started working on some Frank Lloyd Wright-inspired trail markers commissioned by his foundation to be put up around Taliesin West.” (That’s Wright’s former winter home and studio in Scottsdale, which is also a UNESCO World Heritage site and a National Historic Landmark.) “I could probably just make river rock people forever and they would sell, but I don’t want to pigeonhole myself, so I force myself to try other things,” he says.

As winding as McCallister’s road was, he feels it was all worth it. “When you tell people you’re an artist, nobody takes you seriously or treats it like a real career,” he says. “But I can confidently say I’m an artist now. It took a lot of work and persistence and always having the larger dream, but I’ve stayed motivated and gotten where I wanted to go.”

 

Top to bottom: Ryan McCallister ’10; Atlas was made using a computer numerical control (CNC) router, which is a computer-controlled cutting machine; The Majestic Moose is made of nickel-plated steel and filled with Mexican polished beach rock; a steel and stained-glass trail marker made for Taliesin West.