Fallon metal artist is octogenarian

By KIM LAMB

Nevada Appeal News Service

Bob Ansotegui has never considered himself a metal artist but his expertise as a welder has opened many avenues of creation for the Fallon man.

"If you know how to weld and fabricate a little bit there's hardly anything that you can't make if you set your mind to it."

Ansotegui, 82, got started welding at age 17 while attending a welding school where he honed his skills.

"The school was one that you stay in until you can pass all of your tests, so it was a pretty good school. Ever since then I have had a number of businesses but have always kept welding machines. Most of the work that I did was helping neighbors if they needed some welding done," Ansotegui said.

At 18, Ansotegui was drafted into the military, serving his time in Europe during WWII. After his return, Ansotegui went to work at a welding shop in Boise, Idaho. After a stint there, he worked for a road construction company welding on construction equipment.

"I changed a lot of jobs. I would spend about five years at one job, and once I figured that I had learned everything, then I got me another one," he said.

Ansotegui said he saw some other people's artistic endeavors with metal and decided to try his hand at it.

"I never really got into it with the intention of doing art work because I never figured myself to be an artist," he said.

One could say that Ansotegui's style is Americana but he has a hard time categorizing it.

"I just come up with something every once in a while. As one thing calls for another you make one thing and then get an idea from that for something else," he said.

A number of Ansotegui's creations started as 55-gallon oil drums, but any kind of metal is fair game. A couple of his pieces include roses.

"I can make the stem by cutting a strip of steel, pounding it with a hammer and welding the seam," he said. A hammer and chisel was used to create the veins in the leaves.

"It's very time consuming so I really didn't think that I wanted to make them to sell, but I have sold a few," he said. The rose petals are made of five different sections which are composited together.

Another creation of Ansotegui's is a big horn sheep head he built up using a braising rod that took about 12 hours to complete. He has thought about using the same technique to construct the heads of four different kinds of sheep on four different spikes that could be turned into a coat rack.

Ansotegui has also created a number of playful art pieces out of horseshoes portraying cowboys in a variety of situations including good and bad fly fishing techniques and roping.

Ansotegui said that he has been busy with a couple of remodel jobs at home which hasn't allowed him to work on his art pieces lately.

"Whenever I get a little extra time I will go out to the shop and work on things, although I really don't spend too much time at it anymore," he said.

"I never come up with plans for anything. I just stick things together," he said. "I very seldom goof up and have to throw anything away."