Jon Vander Bloomen

medium: sculpture

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Gear Flowers 2008 Sculpture	Antique Sandbox Toy 2008 Sculpture	Lunkenheimer's Mower 2008 Sculpture
Beetlediver's Flying Machine 2008 Sculpture	Nastia's Coffee Service 2009 Sculpture	Elmer's Oiler 2009 Sculpture
Front Gear Drive 2010 Sculpture	Poor Leno's Ride 2011 Sculpture	Spring Crank Steamer 2010 Sculpture
Laugh When You Dance 2011 Sculpture

Contact information
70985 Ondossagon Rd
Ashland, WI 54806
Phone Number: 715-682-2837
Email Address: jonvanderbloomen@yahoo.com
Web site: www.steelsculpturesdefantasia.com

Artist statement
My art is about Fantasy Vehicles. My style is called Fantastic Realism, something real that has been fantasized. What inspires me to create these fantasy vehicles is the many interesting and unusual items I find in steel salvage yards in northern Wisconsin. Most of my sculptures are made from recycle steel, but sometimes I use new steel. What inspired me to begin with was some steel wheels that came from obsolete farm machinery. Gears are another thing I am very fond of, I like to use them for the vehicle transmissions and engines. Not everything is welded, many things are put together with nuts and bolts, sometimes pipe is threaded and pipe fittings are used. I also incorporate old gauges into my steel fantasy vehicles.

Biography
Jon Vander Bloomen was born in Green Bay, Wis., in 1952. He started to develop his artistic talents in his father’s concrete manufacturing shop, where he made things from pieces of scrap steel, as well as wood and an assortment of odd hardware. He was always fascinated by statuary so in 1977 he taught himself to carve marble and later combined non-ferrous metal with marble. In 1988 he restored the limestone sculpture at Green Bay’s Brown County Courthouse. He also created birdbaths of his own design from Lake Michigan beach stone and did other creative stone masonry. In 1997 he moved to Ashland, Wis. Since 2006 Jon has been hunting scrap yards for unique and interesting items. He has a very vivid imagination, when he sees a particular item, it will give him an idea to create a steel sculpture. His art is mostly about Fantasy vehicles. His style is called Fantastic Realism.