Meet the Artist
Shelly Durica-Laiche
SCULPTURE/Metal Work
Shelly Durica-Laiche designs and builds decorative and functional metal sculpture in Portland, Oregon. Her metal art includes trellises, freestanding sculpture, furniture, wall art and landscape elements. Salvaged steel is her preferred material for creating her diverse body of work. Shelly also includes non-ferrous metal accents such as brass, stainless, aluminum and copper. She collects all her material from steelyards, the side of the road, by donation or through her travels.
When Shelly describes her process, she says that “I’m inspired by the unique shapes of these found treasures. Scrap metal has an embedded history and character that folds into each design. Sometimes I know right away what I want to build while other times it takes years of contemplation. I’m driven by the design challenge of transforming these recognizable objects into assemblages with a new voice. I seek for the viewer to be surprised by how a material is used in an unconventional way, far removed from its past life. The process is magic to me.”
Shelly uses primarily reclaimed metals, most of which are steel. She finds scrap agricultural, industrial and household remnants from a variety of places. She is a MIG welder on steel that uses cold connections for the non-ferrous metals. These metals include stainless, brass, aluminum and copper as accents. Shelly also incorporates accents of glass, plastic and stone.