Forty years is a long time to be working at anything and still enjoy it. If you ask Andrew Raney, a metal artist who specializes in steel, he would say that he has never lost that enjoyment about his work.

Before coming to the Kootenays, Andrew started back in 1968 creating steel sculptures; commissioned works like gates, and abstract garden sculptures, along with occasional pieces of furniture in Ontario where he was born and raised.

His journey into art began when an old friend asked Andrew to come with him to art school.

Thinking this was a good option, Andrew attended the Ontario College of Art for four years. After the first year, he decided on three dimension work which was his strength. Studying design and a variety of materials like clay, wood, fibre, paper, casting, and metal; Andrew ended up majoring in metal work.

After graduating, Andrew eventually moved from Toronto to a rural area in the Niagara region in the early 70s, got married, and built a studio. During this time, he made a lot of trips to Toronto galleries to try and sell his work. For Expo 1986, Andrew sent some of his work over to the folk art pavilion. It was so well received that they asked for many more orders.

“Throughout this period, I did a bit of landscape work but after 15 years, I realized I could make a living out of it, and just concentrated on my metal work,” he recalls. “I organized the Niagara art studio tour where people go around to different artists’ studios… doing that for seven or eight years.”

Andrew moved to BC 16 years ago, leaving behind his Niagara fruit farm, eventually landing in Salmo, where he still resides today creating pieces in his workshop.

“We got rid of everything and just brought the four kids, wife, pets, clothing, art, piano, and music with us..the bare minimum,” he recalls laughing.

After moving to the Kootenays, Andrew found that there was more of a market for smaller functional or decorative pieces. For his whimsical birds, fish, creatures, and bugs found at Nelson’s Craft Connection, a welding torch is used to heat the metal, either bending it or cutting pieces off and then fusing them together.

“I enjoy working with metal – I never lost the enjoyment, the fluidity. I can have a piece done in 20 minutes; it is instant gratification; the beauty is immediate…with metal, I can cut out the bad part and keep going. I also see the humour in things; I think everybody should laugh at something.”

Today Andrew is working on two proposals for public sculptures besides his regular welded smaller steel sculptures. Amazingly, the inspiration and enjoyment to create are still there even after 40 years.