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This is the text of Dennis O’Donnell talking about how he learned his art, while he makes a sculpture (you can hear him welding in the background), recorded June 26, 1998 by Michael Kline in Washington, D.C.

I guess I do strange things with strange pieces of metal. I take old, used equipment and revamp them and turn them into pieces of artwork. I guess the best description of them is whatever you want them to be—if you want some of the animals I make into chickens, or they’re chickens to me, and you would like them to be chickens—they’re chickens. And if they look like just old pieces of iron—they’re old pieces of iron. There you go [stops welding]. I’ve never had an art class a day in my life. And I’ve never had a welding class. [laughs] I come up through the ranks of hard knocks, I guess. I enjoy doing it, and I farm, and you got to repair equipment, so you learn how to weld. And this helps you become a lot more proficient at welding.

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