Are You Into Metal?
A little over a decade ago, Hanna and I were driving to her cousin’s wedding just outside of Bar Harbour, Maine when we saw a big striped bass and a tarpon staring at us from the side of a barn. We pulled over to a small crafts and souvenir shop to investigate and fell in love with the big colorful metal striper. We were still more or less newlyweds, still more or less trying to get our financial footing in the world, and the high three-figure price scared the hell out of us, so we left without buying it.
The next day we went back, handed over the credit card, and had the piece shipped back to Virginia. It was our first piece of “grown up” art.
For many years the big striper was a focal point above our fireplace, until we got a replica of Hanna’s Zambezi River tigerfish, at which point old linesides moved into my office. I look at it every day.
It’s not the only piece of fishy metal that adorns our walls. In Wimberley, Texas, we bought a metallic largemouth finished with automotive paint that seems to reflect a different color every time you look at it.
While we’ve started to invest more heavily in replicas, as you look around the internet you can’t help but notice that there are a lot of very talented metalworkers producing fish art.
One of my favorites is Ashley Weber Art. I discovered her work during a search for peacock bass
But she also has tons of other incredible pieces, like the striking hogfish below. In fact, her catalog includes many of my bucket list species.
I’m also fond of what I’ve seen from Legends Fabrications of Florida. This yellowfin gets me excited for my trip to Panama next April.
And I hope that on that same trip we’ll do some inshore popping for roosterfish, too.
And Mind Bending Metal Art produced this amazing grouper
If you’re a trout fiend, you’ll love these Meriwether Metal pieces by Travis Stufflebean, although this one will require a really big wall.
The bottom line is that we need more wall space!
