Artwork by Bob Walter

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Bob Walter

Artist Statement

Bob Walter was born in Venezuela, South America, while his father worked for Phillips 66.  He lived there the first 14 years of his life, until he returned to the United States to finish his high school education at Shawnee, OK.  He then moved to Stillwater, OK, attended OSU, and attained his Mechanical Power Technology degree.  Bob has always been involved in some art form.  As a boy, he did a lot of sketching with pencil and charcoal.  He has worked with steel, leaded glass and wood, but always comes back to steel.  He enjoys the stability of steel.

Bob and Donna Married in 1996.  We decided to pursue Bob's art career shortly after we were married.  We began working out of our one-car garage.  In the beginning, Bob did the building and Donna assisted by painting, and cutting small parts to save Bob  time.  As Donna learned to use the tools, and gained experience, she began to do more.  We both had full time jobs.  We spent evenings and weekends building pieces for art shows.

As Walter Works began to grow, we reinvested all the money made from the shows into our business.  We began to spend most of our time building inventory, and had little or no time to create new pieces.  We decided to buy our studio in August of 1999.  By November of 1999, we still hadn't found time to move our equipment to the new studio.  That's when we decided that it is time for Bob to quit his machinist job and devote his time to his artwork.  It was a scary step, but it was time to take it!  January of 2000, Bob started working as a full-time artist.  We were able to increase the number of shows we could do, and he still had time to create new pieces.

All our pieces are made by hand.  We don't use a computer, laser, or any automated equipment.  We do make patterns of items that we may want to reproduce.  All the rod pieces are cut, bent, and welded to create the finished product, then hand painted.  The flat work is drawn by hand, on sheets of steel.  Then cut with a hand-held plasma torch.  These pieces are finished either with a rust patina, or by polishing out the metal and heating to bring out the natural hue from within the metal (similar to bluing a gun).  Then all pieces are coated  with a clear coat to protect the finish.

When we began in 1996, we called our art "Functional Art" as it was mostly tables, barstools, lamps and wine racks.  However, now we make a lot of Southwest, Native American and Wildlife metal Art.  Our art continues to evolve as we develop new pieces and techniques.  We started adding some fused glass to some of our pieces in 2005, to give more color and to put an original twist to our work.  In 2006, Bob began working with copper.  We call it "Flame Painting."  The designs and colors on the copper are done with a torch.  The patterns and deesigns are first laid down by touching the tip of the flame to the piece.  Next it is heated by holding the torch close, but not touching, to bring out the different colors.  Different temperatures yield different colors.