“METALSUM”, art for the home and garden. Found and repurposed objects welded into abstract, representational and whimsical art with an emphasis on portraying the natural world.

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Jane Kolias creates decorative rustic metal art from found, abandoned and discarded objects. She finds things in nooks and crannies of antique and thrift stores, salvage yards, friend’s back yards, roadway ditches, abandoned fields, forays into the woods and sometimes her own kitchen drawers.

Inspiration for these designs comes from observing nature, the creativity of fellow artists, and the found objects themselves. Each finished piece has its own unique configuration and blend of components which become garden and landscape pieces, wall hangings, and tabletop items.

Jane starts each project with a design in mind. As she considers which bits of scrap metal to use, the process becomes fluid and dynamic, creating a synergistic partnership between herself and the various components. This often results in the finished piece only somewhat resembling her original design.

If she knows the name or purpose of a component, she will label it, but for many pieces the component’s utility is unknown to her. She occasionally adds paint to a finished piece but her preference is to leave each work unpainted for a more organic look. For outside art, she applies several layers of clear protective coating to help abate rust formation.

Artist’s bio: Jane Kolias, a native New Hampshirite now residing in Vermont, has an extensive and lifelong association with the arts. As a young adult, she was active in the performing arts including community theatre and competitive ballroom dance. As a textile artist she has designed quilts and costumes, has worked with metals in jewelry design and fabrication, and has created landscape art such as stonewall and rock garden arrangements. Her most recent endeavor, “METALSUM”, involves welding found objects into abstract, representational and whimsical art with an emphasis on portraying the natural world.