BOW, Wash. — An artist in Bow is taking lawn ornaments to the next level.
Joe Treat crafts large-scale sculptures out of driftwood, bolts, and pure imagination.
A menagerie that lives in his front yard includes an elephant, a rhinoceros, dinosaurs, dragons and horses. The sight routinely stops drivers in their tracks.
“Oh my gosh, I’m speechless!” said Gloria McCauley, who pulled over her van to get a better look. “He has such a gift."
Treat loves it, and part of him still can't believe it – because he had zero woodworking experience until the age of 63.
"It's a passion that's been hidden and it's just a wonderful thing to find,” he said.
The discovery came during a trip to his wife's native Thailand, where artisans make horses out of teak.
"When I got home, I decided I was going to try and make something. I made a little triceratops,” he said. "Within hours, people were pulling over, knocking on my door, asking me questions, wanting to buy it. And then someone called me an artist, and I haven't been able to stop since.”
In just three years, he made 30 sculptures. Local beaches provide the driftwood, and he crafts everything in a small workshop behind his house. He’s entirely self-taught.
"I knew I was doing a good job when I came out and there was a dog standing there barking at one of my pieces, from a safe distance of course,” he said.
Treat’s creatures don’t just decorate his own yard - some have moved into galleries and public sculpture gardens.
The more he creates, the more he's inspired.
"I've gotten to a point where I work on two at a time,” he said. “I'm having the time of my life."
Treat says it’s never too late to discover who you are.
"I think my wife will tell me when I'm done. She doesn't want much more in the yard, and it's hard to mow around here,” he said, smiling.
You can see Treat’s art in several locations:
• His yard at 6751 Worline Road in Bow
• San Juan Islands Sculpture Park in Roche Harbor
• Madrona Grove Sculpture Garden in Anacortes
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