PRAIRIE THUNDER

Is a life size corten steel buffalo welded together by Russell “Rusty” Burgardt. The piece was commissioned by Friends of Garden City Arts and created in 2014. The artist, Rusty, took several measurements of the stuffed buffalo on display at Garden City High School in order to get accurate sizes for the rebar and corten steel.

Paragraph with artist description (I know nothing about him)

The armature for Prairie Thunder was created out of rebar and can be seen if you peak through the nostrils of the sculpture. The body of the buffalo was then made of 8 inch thick pieces of corten steel. Rusty used different kinds of recycled gears and scrap metal on different portions of the buffalo such as the horns, before finally seam welding everything together. To finish the look a mixture of hydrochloric acid, water, and pennies was sprayed onto the sculpture to create a patina, and then a plasma cutter turned down was used to create the texture of wooly fur on the large metal panels. The sculpture took 6 months, 3 full sheets of 5 x 10 plate steel, and weighs nearly 1,000 pounds. It was welded down to its spot upon completion.