Country
Friday, July 17, 2020
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Volume 8, Edition 9
Focusing on Today’s Rural Environment
PHOTO BY KAYLA ALBERS
Rick Murphy takes a break from working on one of his sculptures July 8 in Osakis.
Creativity
unleashed Murphy welds works of art BY SARAH COLBURN | STAFF WRITER
PHOTO BY KAYLA ALBERS
One of Rick Murphy’s sculptures, a custom piece for a client whose father passed away, is pictured July 8 at Murphy’s workshop in Osakis. The piece features objects to commemorate him including golf balls, bowling figurines and a large mustache.
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Publications The newspaper of today is the history of tomorrow.
OSAKIS – Milk crates line the wall of Rick Murphy’s shop near Lake Osakis. Each is filled with different bobbles, from antique springs to metal rake heads, car rims, chrome bumper parts and rusty roller skate wheels. It’s an organized chaos as bright yellow painted parts sway from metal chains that hang down from the ceiling. The work bench is littered with dozens of colorful spray paint cans and numerous projects sit in varying states of completion as he readies pieces for painting. While pieces dry, or soak in muriatic acid for aging,
This month in the
COUNTRY
Murphy tinkers, joining metal pieces together as the sparks fly off the welder, creating unique sculptural works of art. He places old chrome bumper guards, from the 1940s to the 1960s, horizontally to create the face of a dog, old tricycle parts for the floppy ears, fire extinguishers for bodies, rake tines for eyelashes, half a soup ladle bowl for eyelids, tractor seats, metal gas tanks, snowblower parts … he uses them all. “Once I started it bit me, and I haven’t stopped; I just love it,” Murphy said. From dogs with silly faces to people, turkeys, pigs, chickens and zany bird-like creatures, the inspiration comes from Murphy’s imagination. He crafts pieces he hopes will speak to people and con-
nect with their passions. Some of the creatures are adorned with car emblems, Harley Davidson parts or harken to the Minnesota Twins. He even does custom work, such as creating a sculpture out of the tools of a loved one in their memory, though he spends most of his time on those projects worrying if the buyer will like it as much as he does. Sometimes, he has trouble putting the pieces up for sale because he’s fallen in love with them. He’s been creating sculptures for the better part of 14 years and still gets excited about each and every piece. He reserves the summers for welding, working in a T-shirt with the arms cut off and jeans, sparks
riddling his shirts with holes and his arms with pock-marked burns. Murphy started creating when he got out of the floor coverings business. He did that all his life and when he retired early, in his late 40s/early 50s, he bought a welder and a plasma cutter. Though he was too intimidated to use them at first, once he did, he discovered he couldn’t stop. He describes his early work as crude compared to the highly detailed pieces he develops today. He gets up early and heads to the shop a half mile or so from his house. He starts creating by 7 a.m. and works until 5 p.m., putting in a full day and sometimes, the clock creeps closer to 7 p.m. before he heads back
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11 Exploring another world Alexandria 14 The beauty on our lakes is wild 15 The ultimate farmers’ market
18 Toe-MAY-toe, toe-MAH-toe Herman Lensing Column 20 What’s this? 21 Animals we love 22 In Gilda’s Garden 23 Country cooking
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A treasury of family farms Diane Leukam Column Angels in blue Glenwood Always ready to go Atwater
Murphy page 2
