Dennis O'Donnell's Art Form

Artist's Art Form

Dennis’s
Art Form

“Junque” Farm Sculptures
Frederic, WI

Dennis O’Donnell welding. Courtesy of Dennis O’Donnell. Take a look at an old, ordinary and familiar thing around you, something like a pencil, an eraser, a can, or a cup. Now, let your imagination play. Move the object around. What shape does it have? What color or feel? Do these qualities remind you of anything else? Imagine a whole different use for the thing. What pieces would you have to add to change the old thing into something different? Now you’re thinking like a junque artist!

Dairy equipment is the ordinary and familiar stuff of Dennis’s farm. Like all dairy farmers, Dennis took care of farm equipment along with taking care of the animals. Dennis repaired, adjusted, and made new parts for his farm equipment. He had to be creative and inventive for making those repairs.

One of the many tools Dennis used to repair his farm machinery was a welder. Welders are tools that join two or more metal objects by heating them to a very high temperature so they melt together. As an artist, Dennis uses a welder every time he makes a junque sculpture. “One thing about this junque business, you get real good at welding.” Dennis’s occupation as a farmer gave him lots of skills for his new work as an artist!

After he has welded the pieces together, Dennis might change the color of the metal. He might use acid or paint, or just leave it alone!

What has he made?

Junque art bug by Dennis O’Donnell. Photo by Ruth Olson. Dennis has turned a drinking cup upside down, welded the “teeth” of a dump rake on it for the legs, and used worn out pieces from a soybean extruder for the eyes. The end product? A bug!

Dennis finds that ball bearings make good eyes. He has used the moldboard of a plow to create the body for a goose and the top part of a stanchion for the goose’s head and neck.


Slide Show

Dennis has made some interesting and odd things over the years. Some of them have been useful and others have been just for fun. Check out some of his work.

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“One thing about this junque business, you get real good at welding.”

– Dennis O’Donnell