Mythical Metals: The Art of Cal Fulfer

WORLAND – Kneeling on his shop floor, next to an exploded 1930s Royal typewriter, Worland artist Calvin Fulfer rummages through the gears and springs, looking for the perfect part. "Can you believe all this stuff," laughs Fulfer, "these things were really built to last."

For the 1971 graduate of Worland High School and professional tile artist, the jump to metal arts has been long coming, yet natural. "When I was a kid, my dad, a welder, made me apprentice in his shop," explained Fulfer. "He told me I would always have something to fall back on, and it's become a pretty big tool in my box of tricks."

Originally a carpenter after high school, Fulfer was introduced to master tile setter Bud Penton, and soon began working with the craftsman until starting his own tile business in the 1980s. As an artist, Fulfer became locally infamous as a flint-knapper, until it started to take a toll on his hands, and he sought another creative medium.

"I always kind of dabbled in art, you know, at the kitchen table," said Fulfer, "but then I decided to build a shop and just start getting serious."

From his two-story, eclectic shop outside of Worland, Fulfer uses all of the skills he's learned to create a ménage of mythical animals and beasts. On a table sit an army of scorpions, spiders and dragonflies, made from silver spoons and crystals. Hanging from the ceiling are jellyfish and sharks, fashioned from old doorbells and bicycle spokes and springs. Outside, rusted alligators, monkeys and owls protect the property, made from industrial gears and tractor parts.

Recently, Fulfer has graduated to what he calls "technopods," fossilized representations of fantasy creatures made from a variety of gears, switches, and the refuse of American industrialization, stolen from old adding machines, typewriters, cameras and watches.

Using a sand and mortar technique, Fulfer arranges parts into fish and creepy-crawly beasts, casts the finished piece, then hastens rust and corrosion with a special process to produce, ultimately, something that looks thousands of years old, found in the badlands of the imagination.

"People look at these things, and then they step back and just go 'wow'," said Fulfer. "You can really imagine these monsters roaming around, and then they become real."

Fulfer, along with other local artists, will be displaying their work in an upcoming show in Shell, on August 20. Held at the Art Shelter, Fulfer's "technopods" will debut to a wider audience for the first time.

"Ever since friends have seen what I'm doing, and since the [Worland] landfill started charging to drop off junk, more and more people are bringing me stuff to work with," mused Fulfer. "Just the other day I turned away a whole piano. I didn't even want to imagine what I could create with that thing."