Christian Schoenig

I was first introduced to artistic welding shortly after college. After seeing a flyer at the local grocery store, I signed up for a ten-session class taught by a grizzled old metal artist in the hills of Wheelock, VT. Halfway through the first class, I was hooked. Maybe it was some archaic, testosterone-fueled, male power trip thing, but holding the power in my hands to liquefy metal and change it’s form to my own design was (and still is) a complete rush.

​My sculptures start out as discarded, previously-deemed scrap metal. I see interest, beauty and most of all, potential in the rusted remains of a piece of old farm equipment deserted in a field. I love the process of dismantling a “useless”, seized motor and harvesting the parts to then give them a new life as part of a sculpture. I feel that the true underlying core of my work; whether it is a sculpture of a fish or a functional bistro table is rebirth and renewal.

​People often ask me what my affinity for fish is, as that is the subject of many of my sculptures. My simple response is that is what I see in the metal as I work. I rarely set out to begin a sculpture with a definitive picture of what I want to create in my mind. Instead, I often find inspiration in a single...

LACE Gallery, Barre Vermont
Mac Worthington Gallery, Columbus Ohio
Green Mountain Fine Art Gallery, Stowe Vermont
Woodstock Gallery, Woodstock, Vermont
Tilting at Windmills, Manchester, Vermont