Published: Tuesday, Apr. 21, 2009 / Updated: Tuesday, Apr. 21, 2009 02:44 PM
Recycling sparks ideas for Fort Mill man's art
- Toya Graham
| Douglas Sparks crafts a puppy out of an old muffler. | The Fort Mill man turns old spoons, knives and forks into dragon flies. And the body for a turtle is mostly an abandoned, old skillet. |
| It's his recycling contribution. But don't get it twisted. | |
| While some people celebrate Earth Day this week, Sparks' Earth Day is everyday. For about 30 years, Sparks has welded people's junk into art. | |
| "Other people look at it as a piece of trash," Sparks said of his finds that are turned into art. "I look at it as a bird or dog, and I weld it." | |
| The self-taught welder and sculptor doesn't get his art tools from a local hobby store. | |
| "I go to the trash and get it," Sparks said of discarded nails, eating utensils, mufflers, skillets and the like. "Everything is recycled metal except the paint and welding rods." | |
| And he uses everything. | |
| "I made a giraffe out of a muffler," said Sparks, a construction industry retiree. "I make birds out of plow shears." | |
| His welding torch also turns old mufflers into big and small dogs. | |
| "I use the muffler as the body," he said. "Metal pieces from old beds make up the dog's legs." | |
| Dated nails become legs for his famous dragonflies and spoon handles are welded into dragonfly wings, he said. Sparks' eclectic art demanded attention among locals so much so that during a recent sell at the York County Museum, Sparks took 49 pieces of art but only two came home, he said. | |
| Now, he's busy in his garage making sparks fly from his welding efforts to replenish his stock. Sparks' work -- "A Garden Tree," "A Waving Boy,'" "A Lady with Dreadlocks," and a spider -- grace the front yard leading to Fort Mill's BacInTyme Coffee Cafe on Confederate Street. | |
| "He's really talented," said Tammy Steinberger, director of arts and entertainment at the cafe. "We have a lot of people asking about his work." | |
| About six minutes away, Sparks' yard showcases his skills, including a metal lady that's "kin" to his wife, Paula. | |
| "There's her sister over there," Douglas Sparks pointed to a metal woman constructed out of miscellaneous car parts. "Her head's made out of a shovel." | |
| The hobby turned passion offers Sparks a haven. | |
| "It's fun," he said before welding last week. "It's relaxing." | |
| Yet, welding and sculpting art is so much more. It's therapy for Sparks, who turns 67 come Thursday, but cancer nearly robbed him of that celebration. | |
| "I do this now because it takes my mind off from it," said Sparks, who did construction work in both Carolinas until 2007. | |
| The next year, Sparks' long time doctor delivered some bad news. | |
| "He said, 'I'm sorry to tell you that you have lung cancer,'" Sparks recalled. "The next thing he said was, 'It's not a death sentence.' But I thought it was. The cancer had spread from lung to lymph node, making it inoperable." | |
| Sparks fought his cancer with double chemotherapy and radiation, enduring 37 radiation and 14 chemo treatments over a seven-week period. He lost his hair and his energy level dropped so much that he could barely move let alone tinker with his metals. | |
| "I just couldn't do it," he said. | |
| But six months later, he recouped most of his energy and ventured to the garage, where he picked up his welding gear. | |
| "You got to do something beside sit around and think about it," said Sparks, who during the early stages of his post cancer comeback turned out nearly 15 art pieces. | |
| Sparks had his last chemo and radiation treatments in July 2008. His cancer still lingers, hopefully dormant, in a much smaller size. Meanwhile, Sparks' collection has dwindled to two trees so he's busy working to replenish. | |
| And forgetting cancer. | |
| "When I'm put my mind and body busy doing things, I can put cancer to the side," he said. | |
| And live. Just like his recycled metal art. |
