Imagination is a unique trait to have. It’s not just a youthful attribute we once had as kids, but something that grows with us. A skill that starts with the mind as we perceive and engage with the world around us. In many ways, art is a medium that can expand how we look and think about things around us. Jud Turner and Amanda Renee Turner are two artists that seem to be reinventing where that mental creativity comes from and how they express it. With a unique studio that Turner named The Oblivion Factory, the two sculptors are known for their street art in Eugene as well as the deconstruction/reconstruction of their work — something that they use as a base for their sculptures. Taking various found objects apart and putting them back together again are some of the ways they play with their craft.
“We live in a world where everything is mass-produced,” Jud said. “It’s just a playground for that type of art and practice.” As a society today, we are massive consumers, always getting new things and getting rid of stuff we don’t need. This allows Jud and Renee to work with all kinds of materials. Jud mentioned their primary medium is welding, using metals and thermoplastics to make most of his sculptures. Things like recycled products and random found objects from junkyards to Goodwills are all repurposed in their work –– a pareidolia effect, a way of seeing patterns, shapes and even faces into ordinary objects, into their sculptures.
“There’s this altruistic, aesthetic devotion to making art,” Renee said, “and then there’s this dance going on that you need to make money.” Renee understands that in the art world, you don’t always make money, but you get a sense of reward when you do this kind of work. Originally from Detroit, Michigan, Renee has been making art all her life, traveling all over the world. She’s worked with glass, mosaic found objects, chainsaw carving, paint and anything else she can get her hands on. When she got to Eugene, she became interested in welding and possibly making sculptures, seeking an apprenticeship with Jud. Not only did she learn the art of welding, but she developed a relationship with Jud, and the two got married.
The couple have worked dynamically on different projects. In Lane County, they’ve been able to contribute some significant sculptures around the county. Some stand out and represent certain aspects of the city, along with their own ideas.
Great Blue Heron, by Jud Turner
Most students and people that live in Eugene will recognize this sculpture. Located on East 13th Avenue and Alder Street, the sculpture is a blue metal heron that stands as a symbol of nature and people in Eugene. The city and the University of Oregon reached out to Jud to make a sculpture for them. They wanted to fill that intersection with a public art piece, suggesting the school’s mascot, the Oregon Duck. However, Jud thought the Duck was well represented all over campus and wanted to go in a different direction.
“The heron is a member of this community, and the UO is quite close to the river where the herons live, hunt and fish,” Jud said. “It’s part of our environment that ties us to the natural world.” Jud’s art likes to play with the idea of scale, space, nature and recycled material.
The sculpture stands at 16 feet tall and is made of bicycle, motorcycle and car parts and two trolley tracks that were used in that intersection in the early 1900s. The city kept some of those steel beams and was able to hand them to Jud to work on for the sculpture. The sculpture has been there for about 10 years and stands as a symbol for the environment we share with the heron.
“The idea of that street is like a river of human traffic, so the heron at that size is sorta at the edge of this river of human traffic,” Jud said. He plays with the idea that we’re in this bird’s environment rather than the bird being in ours. The mere size of it also shows us the predatory nature of the bird on a human scale, mentioning that welding is about trying to find deeper meaning with all the parts that you use. With the heron, all these parts are elements of transportation that go under it, which include people, bikes and cars. It looks at us go by like prey going by the river.
Justice, by Renee Turner
This metal sculpture is found on East 5th Avenue and Blair Street on the Whiteaker side of town. The sculpture is called “Justice” and is about 12 feet tall. It has an array of colors and metals and shows a person with wings holding a scale in one hand and a sword in the other. She got the idea from a deck of tarot cards, being inspired by Stephanie Judio Lard’s artwork of justice on them.
“It’s that theme of justice in the United States of America playing out these days,” Renee said. She referred to the overall violence happening in our country and the justice — or lack of justice — that goes behind it. She mentioned some of the sheet metals she used for the sculpture’s dress inspired this theme, particularly what’s happened here in Oregon. She found one sheet that showed a salmon being held firmly by a human hand.
“Basically, as we sit on stolen land and the salmon that has sustained the people and the wildlife in this area, plays a part on environmental and social stuff,” Renee said. Her piece seems to touch on each of these elements that range from nature, the ideas of inequality and how people have an effect on their surroundings. Finding these pieces of metal helped put together ideas that she was able to work on with the sculpture. Her work transmits these deep meanings and also ties in the spiritual connection of how we exist. This was her first welding sculpture she did for a friend, and you can read a poem about justice in our country attached to it.
The Oblivion Factory has been pouring out sculptures for over 11 years now, providing a place for two sculptures that are full of ideas. They have artwork all over the world, and their studio continues to be a haven where they can rest their imagination or weld it for people to see.
