Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Rogers artist breathes new life into old items
Flynn’s firefly art installation on display at Bella Vista Public Library
“I would like people to see what it is and what it’s made of at the same time. I don’t want to lose the shape of anything.” — Tom Flynn, Rogers artist
BELLA VISTA — Tom Flynn, of Rogers, the found-object artist responsible for the new firefly art installation at the Bella Vista Public Library, recently shared about art and life.
“I would like people to see what it is and what it’s made of at the same time,” he said. “I don’t want to lose the shape of anything.”
He referred to two welded-together yard rakes that he is making into a centipede. He said they are simultaneously recognizable as the sculpture and the original material. His workshop has collections of various types of found metal objects that he is saving for sculptures. He said at one time he spent four years collecting matching metal rug beaters for damsel fly wings. He often builds insects or flowers.
Flynn finds his materials at resale stores, antique stores, yard sales, and has sources for other items and buys some online.
“Some of the found objects are found at Home Depot,” he said.
Flynn’s passion for metal art all began with a birthday present. About 20 years ago when he was living in Austin, Texas, his wife purchased for his birthday admission to an art welding class, he said. She told him he had always talked about wanting to be a metal artist, and even though he did not remember making that remark, he took the class and loved it. Following the class he bought equipment and started working in his garage. One of the first things he built was a firefly — or lightning bug, as it is sometimes called.
“Over the years it’s grown into a passion,” he said.
His art gained momentum when he moved to Rogers about 2009. He had been laid off from his job, and he had not yet been putting his artwork in galleries. He said he had heard you should look for a job half a day and enjoy yourself the other half, so while he was pursuing his art in his spare time, he found a gallery in Rogers called Poor Richard’s. The gallery agreed to show his art and it sold well.
Flynn works as a senior electrical designer. He and his team design the electric for a good portion of the McDonald’s restaurants in the U.S., he said.
He was formerly a Benedictine monk, back in the early 1980s.
“For those who are Catholic, I refer to it as my three failed attempts at holy orders,” he said.
First he studied for a diocese in west Texas to be a priest, he said. Then he studied for a religious order called The Redemptress. Then he ended up joining a monastery in New Mexico and was there for five years.
“I was the monastic trash man,” he said.
The garbage truck was parked off campus and his instructions were to walk around the truck and bang on it with a broom to make sure there were no bears in it.
He was also a musician and songwriter there, and they published some of his songs. He played several instruments and still plays the ukulele and drums.
He also met his wife, Susan, there. She was a nun at the time. Several years after he left she also left and came to visit him in Austin, and they ended up getting married.
As for what he has been up to recently, he just took a course in arduino, which is a small computer chip programmable to control LED lights and robot motors. He is working on two masks made of antique stovetops that will have blinking LEDs in the eyes that will blink twice once a minute. He also teaches a found metal art course at the Eureka Springs School of Art.
Flynn has a new opportunity coming up to showcase his work. He met with the Eureka Springs parks department to talk about an art installation in Harmon Park. The city wants to create an art park there, he said, and he will be one of the first artists featured. His sculptures shown there will be lightning bugs as well.