Mark Dietzel

I grew up with limited means, though as kids we didn’t really know it. I always loved art, but college wasn’t an option for me, and I had no formal art education or training in any of the processes I use today. Everything I know about working with metal has come through curiosity, experimentation, mistakes, and persistence. It wasn’t until later in life that I began to recognize I might have a talent worth pursuing. Since then, sculpture has become a way to explore that possibility—to take what I have, learn what I need, and bring something from my imagination into the world

I build sculptures by merging fabrication with intuition. Using found metal, custom-fabricated components, and lost wax castings, I construct each piece layer by layer—cutting, welding, and shaping until the form feels resolved. I’m interested in the contrast between rigid industrial materials and the sense of movement they can carry. The process isn’t just assembly—it’s transformation, where raw steel and discarded parts are pushed into something dynamic, expressive, and often unexpected

My inspiration comes from nature, imagination, and the possibilities I see in discarded metal. An old gear, a worn tool, or a piece of machinery can suggest a creature, a figure, or the beginning of an unexpected form. I’m drawn to the challenge of giving rigid materials a sense of movement, expression, and life. By combining found objects with cast and fabricated elements, I let the materials help guide the sculpture as it develops. Each piece becomes a meeting of what the metal once was and what I imagine it could become