Sculptor John Lopez was born and raised on a ranch in Western South Dakota. His western and rodeo theme bronzes have been well received by the public and have sold all over the country from California to New York.
In the midst of a successful career in bronze sculpting, John Lopez discovered this exciting new direction: scrap iron sculpting. "I am never bored! I look forward to each new creation, and it is helping me grow and develop as an artist," he says.
This unusual detour started about two years ago, when his beloved aunt, Effie Hunt, died in a rollover car accident. Lopez moved to his widowed Uncle Geno Hunt's ranch to build a family cemetery; his aunt would to be the first laid to rest there.
Uncle Geno opened his home and welding shop to Lopez, who completed a fence around the cemetery, then ran out of material. The ranch is 35 miles from the nearest town or post office, so he went looking through the scrap iron on site. After some experimentation, he finished a gate into the cemetery, and then made a small angel peering over the top of the gate. The project gave him much personal satisfaction, and everyone who saw it was amazed at the result. A new career path was born in that cemetery. Not wanting to depart from his bronze casting expertise, John found a way to merge the two art forms into a new hybrid sculpture of everyday objects mixed with limited edition bronze castings. Hybrid Metal Art, a sculptural fusion of figurative and funk, a blend of iron and bronze.
In 2008 John placed his scrap iron monument of "Triceratops Cowboy" (a cowboy riding a Triceratops) in front of the Grande River Museum in Lemmon, SD. Later that same year John placed his scrap iron T-Rex in Faith, SD in honor of the largest T-Rex ever found by the name of Sue. If you find yourself in Hill City you might see a life-size hybrid metal horse sculpture John did that won the peoples choice award at the Sculpture in the Hills show in Hill City in 2009.
In 2000, the Pro Rodeo Hall of Fame commissioned John to create two bronze monuments for their sculpture garden. The first featured World Champion Calf Roper, Paul Tierney, on Coffee Jeff, a horse raised by John's Uncle Geno. The second monument featured Charmayne James on her famous horse Scamper.
© 2019. All images are copyrighted © by John Lopez. Apart from fair dealing for the purpose of private study, research, criticism or review as permitted under the Copyright Act, the use of any image from this site is prohibited unless prior written permission is obtained. All images used for illustrative purposes only.
In the midst of a successful career in bronze sculpting, John Lopez discovered this exciting new direction: scrap iron sculpting. "I am never bored! I look forward to each new creation, and it is helping me grow and develop as an artist," he says.
This unusual detour started about two years ago, when his beloved aunt, Effie Hunt, died in a rollover car accident. Lopez moved to his widowed Uncle Geno Hunt's ranch to build a family cemetery; his aunt would to be the first laid to rest there.
Uncle Geno opened his home and welding shop to Lopez, who completed a fence around the cemetery, then ran out of material. The ranch is 35 miles from the nearest town or post office, so he went looking through the scrap iron on site. After some experimentation, he finished a gate into the cemetery, and then made a small angel peering over the top of the gate. The project gave him much personal satisfaction, and everyone who saw it was amazed at the result. A new career path was born in that cemetery. Not wanting to depart from his bronze casting expertise, John found a way to merge the two art forms into a new hybrid sculpture of everyday objects mixed with limited edition bronze castings. Hybrid Metal Art, a sculptural fusion of figurative and funk, a blend of iron and bronze.
In 2008 John placed his scrap iron monument of "Triceratops Cowboy" (a cowboy riding a Triceratops) in front of the Grande River Museum in Lemmon, SD. Later that same year John placed his scrap iron T-Rex in Faith, SD in honor of the largest T-Rex ever found by the name of Sue. If you find yourself in Hill City you might see a life-size hybrid metal horse sculpture John did that won the peoples choice award at the Sculpture in the Hills show in Hill City in 2009.
In 2000, the Pro Rodeo Hall of Fame commissioned John to create two bronze monuments for their sculpture garden. The first featured World Champion Calf Roper, Paul Tierney, on Coffee Jeff, a horse raised by John's Uncle Geno. The second monument featured Charmayne James on her famous horse Scamper.
© 2019. All images are copyrighted © by John Lopez. Apart from fair dealing for the purpose of private study, research, criticism or review as permitted under the Copyright Act, the use of any image from this site is prohibited unless prior written permission is obtained. All images used for illustrative purposes only.
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| Mr John Lopez |
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| The studio |
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| Black Hawk (detail) |
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| Black Hawk |
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| Boss Cowman Square |
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| Boss Cowman Square (detail) |
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| Calumet |
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| Colt of Many Colors |
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| Dakotah |
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| Fishing Cowboy |
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| French Buffalo |
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| Friesian |
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| Hermes Horse |
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| Hugh Glass |
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| Hugh Glass (Detail) |
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| Iron Star |
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| Moose |
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| Moose (detail) |
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| Steam punk Octopus (detail) |
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| Steam punk Octopus |
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| Steampunk Owl |
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| Steampunk Owl (detail) |
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| T. rex |
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| The Acrobat |
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| The Acrobat (detail) |
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| The City of Presidents: Grant |
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| The City of Presidents: Roosevelt |
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| The City of Presidents: JFK and JFK Jr |
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| The Last Stand |
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| The Last Stand (detail) |
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| The Last Stand (detail) |
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| The Last Stand (detail) |
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| White Rhino |
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| White Rhino (detail) |
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| Wild West Buffalo |
