The art of metal

To an artist, the backyard of an acreage is a blank canvas. The possibilities for inspiration are endless. Every corner of the property is a place to express a flare for design or add a personal touch. For Lucinda Bowers, who spent 12 years as a graphic artist, her own backyard became that canvas when she and husband Tom purchased their property in Arlington, Washington. Metal artwork created by Lucinda adorns their 2.5 acres. It's a labor of love that developed when this self-proclaimed desperate housewife decided to start a second career creating art while being a stay-at-home mom to their daughter, Olivia.

Lucinda admits metalworking is not a field many women pursue. But with a maiden name like Smith, she felt she was destined to work with metal. Her family's heritage originates in England and is filled with sheet metalworkers. Even though her grandfather, great-grandfather, and great uncle were metalworkers, she never saw them work with it. Her father chose not to follow in the family profession and tried to keep his daughters as far away from it as he could.

"He still doesn't understand why I love it!" Lucinda says. But her determination, along with a little help from her husband, has given her the chance to fulfill a dream. Lucinda, who started cutting out garden designs with a torch about six years ago, says this wasn't a career that began overnight.

"I'd been dreaming about working with metal for about a year," she says. With no actual experience working with a cutting torch or welder, she bought the equipment she needed to start cutting metal. Once she had the necessary tools, she took a trip to the scrap yard and hauled some metal home to experiment.

"All of the time my husband thought I was nuts," she says. "But once he taught me how to fire up the torch, and I saw how the metal turned molten into my first heron [a motif she's kept], I was hooked!" Within a couple of months, Lucinda was taking her art to nurseries and plant farms in her area, and she began consigning her artwork. "Lo and behold, people started buying it!" she says.