Cedar Mueller is not a fan of monotony and that becomes pretty apparent when you spend some time with her discussing her life and passion for art.
Mueller is the type of person who will jump right into a new field if it sparks her imagination and enjoyment. She hit a homerun when she was able to utilize her artistic ability, her background in biology and her newfound love of welding.
“I started with painting and went to school to be a biologist,” Mueller said.” I got a master’s (degree) and all that, and had kids. Being a biologist and having kids wasn’t mixing that great, and I sold a few paintings, but never thought I was going to do sculpture and didn’t think much about it.”
Mueller went travelling in the Dominican Republic and came across some beautiful horse sculptures made of scrap metal. “Even then I thought, that’s really cool,” she said. “I said, ‘Oh, we should take one home’ and my husband said ‘Are you insane?’”
Her husband sparked Mueller’s desire to give welding a shot, and even though she thought it was impossible in the beginning, she eventually found direction towards her new trade.
“Where my parents live, their neighbour is a welder and we were talking to him one day and I said, ‘Well if you were going to make a sculpture of a horse – what would you do – what would you use?’ and he said ‘Well, I’d buy a stick welder and I would cut with an angle grinder and I would go find some old cars and just cut them up.’
“So I just did that,” Mueller said. “And I asked ‘well, how would I learn?’ and he told me to just come over, so he let me practice and showed me how to use the welder and I took it from there.”
The first piece Mueller made now has a home in Castlegar, B.C. at Sculpture Walk.
She says if you don’t personally know someone who welds, you could try and take a course to find out about the fundamentals, “Ideally, you could take a course. I keep looking for a course that fits time-wise to learn more about treating metals as well,” Mueller said.
Her animal pieces are eye-catching due to the natural form Mueller is able to capture in her sculptures. She agreed that a biology degree and her life-long love for animals contribute to her art.
“Oh absolutely, I really love animals and I spend a lot of time with the horses I have out at my parents place and spend a lot of time watching them,” said Mueller. “And bears, of course, I’ve been watching, so I try to get the lines right and I think that’s what it comes down to. I’ve been obsessing about horses since I was little, and bears of course since being a biologist and before.”
Mueller says she tries not to do too much to her found metal, and wants the natural colours, and textures from the natural elements to be on display.
The horse piece Chevy was put together from an old Chevy truck her father stumbled across when he was cutting firewood, Mueller said.
Mueller’s next piece involves taking on an unfamiliar animal. “My next commission is a golden eagle and I haven’t spent a lot of time, so that’s going to be interesting.”
She says just because she has found a new artistic outlet and passion doesn’t mean she’s going to put the paintbrush down. “I still paint; not as much, because I’ve been doing this (welding) and I’m still a biologist too, and I got a new pup and a few kids,” she joked.
Visit: www.cedarmueller.com for more info or email [email protected]..
