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| "One Tall Tree with 5 Small Trees" |
Bob Akers was born in Portland, OR in 1949, as a welder and iron worker he developed a relationship with his medium. Bob returned to sculpture in 1998, finding nature in raw steel and releasing the carbon and colors using the flame from a torch as his brush.
Bob`s appreciation for the asymmetrical, rugged aesthetic of a broken branch and an affinity for the vibrant colors and textures of the outdoors were lessons from his mother, a gifted painter working in oils.
Bob and his wife Joyce live near the banks of the Calapooia River in the foothills of the Cascade Mountains. The changing seasons and natural beauty surrounding Crawfordsville, Oregon are inspiration enough to find the mountains, elk, towering pines, and the ripples of a trout stream held dormant in the sheets of steel that are Bob`s canvas.
Bob`s pieces are featured in galleries throughout the northwest United States and Rocky Mountain region. Characterized by the hand wrought uniqueness of every piece, the range of color and textures that are liberated from the metal and the shadows resulting from design, his works are more as nature intended than could be copied with precision lasers or imposed by chemical finishes.
Bob shares studio space with a blacktail buck, who peers in to critique works in progress and a vocal Manx, 'Sidetracker`, so named for his non-linear gait.