Artist / Public Pieces
Jim Dehne draws his inspiration from the nature and wildlife of the Midwest countryside where he has lived as well as the nature he observed while living and traveling across the country. In his work he has brought together his love for nature and creative use of iron.
Jim was raised on a dairy farm named Point Creek Farm in Newton, Wisconsin. Wildlife was all around as he spent much of his time outdoors with Point Creek a short walk down the hill behind the farm.
After high school, Jim went to Alaska serving three years in the Army and staying an additional four years enjoying living and exploring in the Great Northwest. He encountered moose, mushed with sled dogs, and saw herds of caribou.
Jim came back to the lower 48 and attended college in Iowa studying biology. After college, he returned to the Wisconsin countryside and took over the family farm. While taking care of the farm and raising a family, Jim designed and built much of the equipment, tools, and other implements around the farm. Almost everything was built out of iron and two life long welders were there to show how to bend, form, and weld iron to what was needed. Both his Father and Uncle Lester were welders in the 1940’s on submarines in Wisconsin.
Jim moved into raising flowers in greenhouses and working with floral design and arrangement at a flower shop. He began sculpting with some small pieces including butterflies and dragonflies at garden shows. He continued with flowers, wildlife, and horses, capturing the living feeling of nature and wildlife with lightly curving and twisting iron. Pieces present the feeling of soft metal and movement. Bending iron to whatever need was at hand allows Jim to sculpt iron into the feathery wings of a heron or the dancing wings of a dragonfly.
Jim works primarily with iron rebar and rods thick enough to be difficult for the bending and twisting by hand they go through. Each new piece is created from the ability to paint with iron the interpretation of a flower, winged or walking creature.
Sculptures are made from iron rebar, rods, and wire that are painted black with copper paint highlights.
The last several years Jim has been showing sculptures at art shows and large horse shows mainly in Wisconsin and Minnesota, while previously also in Illinois, Arizona, Texas, and Colorado.
Public Pieces
Edina, Minnesota – Minneapolis area – We have been exhibiting at the Minnesota Horse Expo in Saint Paul, MN every year since 2005 and are pleased we have pieces on display in Edina, MN.
Permanent – The City of Edina purchased a piece “3 Dancing Sandhill Cranes” which had been display at Edina Public Art Rotating Sculpture Exhibit in Edina, Minnesota from June 2014 through May 2015. (In the 50th and France area on the NW corner of 50th and Halifax Ave S.) | Edina Art Center Public Art & Public Art Edina Permanent Collection (another link below for “3 Dancing Sandhill Cranes” page)
Won second place peoples choice award 2014. Photo above by Barbara La Valleur, Chair Public Art Edina Working Group.
Now “3 Dancing Sandhill Cranes” is permanently on the Edina Promenade, south of Hazelton Road and half a block west of France Ave.
Edina Public Art – page for “3 Dancing Sandhill Cranes”
Past Display – May 2016 to May 2019 – We had two pieces on display at Edina Public Art Rotating Sculpture Exhibt in Edina, Minnesota. Edina Art Center Public Art & Public Art Edina Permanent Collection (more links below for pages on “Horse Play” and “Peacock Display”)
“Horse Play” was in the 50th and France area on the NW corner of 50th and Halifax Ave S. One rearing horse is 8 feet 11 inches high and the other rearing horse is 6 feet 7 inches high.
“Peacock Display” was on the Edina Promenade just south of West 70th Street (and east of France Ave S.) The top of one of the peacock fans is about 3 feet 5 inches high.
Two pictures below by Barbara La Valleur, Chair Public Art Edina Working Group. Edina Public Art website page for “Horse Play” and page for “Peacock Display”.
Past Display – 2015 to May 2016 – We had a “Moose” piece on display at Edina Public Art Rotating Sculpture Exhibt in Edina, Minnesota from May 2015 through May 2016. (At Grandview Square Park) ) | Edina Art Center Public Art & Public Art Edina Permanent Collection (Edina no longer has a page for “Moose”) | The shoulder is 7 feet high and the top of the antlers is 9 feet 1 inch high.
Present Display – The Wisconsin Equine Clinic and Hospital in Oconomowoc, Wisconsin is letting us display a rearing horse between 6 and 7 feet tall (plus the mane) by their front sign. (These pictures are in front of their office.) www.wisconsinequineclinic.com/ We first met them at The Midwest Horse Fair in Madison, Wisconsin and we were at their 20th Anniversary – Festival of the Horse in October 2012.
Hopkins, Minnesota – Minneapolis area
Past Display – May 2015 to May 2016 – We had an “Elk” piece on display at Hopkins Artstreet in Hopkins, Minnesota from May 2015 to May 2016. (Main Street in Hopkins.) | http://www.hopkinsmn.com/artstreet/ | The shoulder is 5 feet 5 inches high and the top of the antlers is 9 feet 1 inch high.
Recieved the Judges Merit Award and the Children’s Choice Award for 2015 – 2016.
Sioux Falls, South Dakota
Permanent – “Hungry Bears” – a bear with a salmon and two cubs – at the Great Plains Zoo in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. This piece was in Sioux Falls SculptureWalk in 2006. http://www.sculpturewalksiouxfalls.com/ The Zoo wanted “Hungry Bears” and found donors to purchase the piece. http://www.gpzoo.org/
Two Rivers, Wisconsin
Permanent – “Dancing Sand Hill Cranes” The first piece of public art in the Friends of Mariners Trail new sculpture project (2010). A grouping of 3 cranes placed along the Lake Michigan side of Mariners trail between Two Rivers and Manitowoc, Wisconsin. http://www.marinerstrail.net/ (At about 2730 Memorial Drive, Two Rivers, WI)
