Tough as nails
Some say President Donald Trump is a bigger-than-life figure, first in real estate and now in politics.
Renown metal artist Bill Secunda of Summit Township thinks so, too. He also thinks Trump is tough — like nails.
So it was only natural that Secunda would craft a one-of-a-kind art piece to memorialize the 45th U.S. president.
“I think it came out pretty good,” he said of his creation made almost entirely out of masonry nails along with some framing nails.
The piece, which took three months to complete, stands 6 feet, 2 inches tall and weighs about 450 pounds, which includes the steel used for the base and to support the frame.
He guessed it took 20,000 nails to get the job done. The nails alone account for 300 pounds of the artwork.
As far as projects go for the 59-year-old award-winning Secunda, the Trump statue was unconventional — kind of like the subject himself.
His forte is mainly realism in the form of insects and animals. His medium is not just nails, but steel plate, stainless steel, copper and bronze, all welded and twisted by hand, and guided by inspiration.
<h3>Artwork displayed worldwide</h3>His name commands attention in the world of metal sculpture. His work is on display throughout the country — and beyond.“It's something I like to do,” he said of his unintended profession. A modest man, he leaves it up to others to say he's good.He's good.Last August, his sculpture, “Harmony Afield,” was unveiled at the entrance of Happy Hollow Park in West Lafayette, Ind., home to Purdue University.The four-piece sculpture, constructed of 26 feet of steel plate and tubing, depicts a giant praying mantis — with the special emphasis on “giant” — along with three fireflies.Scattered across the park are three other Secunda sculptures — an 8-foot cricket, a lunar moth and a dragonfly.“They were great,” he said of the city officials who awarded him the contract from a number of bids. “They gave me the room to work, and I tried to do something out of the ordinary that people would like.”He said he's gotten good feedback, but added the disclaimer: “You can't please everyone.”In 2018, Secunda's steel sculpture “Unbridled,” which shows a Native American woman riding a horse, was installed in downtown Des Moines, Iowa.The 2,000-pound piece, crafted of quarter-inch thick steel plate, was purchased by Doug Klein, owner of American Dream Machines in Des Moines, one of the largest muscle car shops in the nation. It greets visitors to downtown from the corner of his business.The Oklahoma Baptist University campus in Shawnee, Okla., also features Secunda's artwork. The artist in 2015 created three life-size bisons all made of welded masonry and collated nails.The school commissioned Secunda to construct the sculptures, which he named “Virtus,” meaning valor, excellence, character, courage and worth.The bisons welcome visitors on the northeast corner of the campus.Why bisons? The town's nickname is “Bison Hill.”Before that, his work appeared at the St. Louis Zoo, including another huge steel sculpture, this of a beetle that stands in front of the Monsanto Insectarium.“It was a bit of a challenge,” he recalled, “because they wanted it accessible for photo opps for kids.”
<h3>Billionaire fan</h3>A big fan of Secunda's is George Barber, a billionaire businessman, real estate developer and philanthropist from Alabama.At his Barber Motorsports Park, an 880-acre multipurpose racing facility in Birmingham, the owner has a number of Secunda's sculptures, not the least of which is an 18-foot, fire-breathing monster rising out of a swamp.Ballparking it dollarwise, Secunda thinks he's sold Barber “well over six-figures worth” of his special kind of art.His stuff is so good that it's on display at several Ripley's Believe It or Not museums, including in Canada and Korea, and at Disney's Epcot theme park in Florida.Welding sparked interest in artBorn and raised in Butler County, Secunda began developing his talent just out of high school while attending a night course in welding at Butler County Community College.He eventually got a welding job at Pullman-Standard, helping build railroad cars, but that lasted only two years. The business closed.He married and moved to Texas, where he worked as a general contractor, rebuilding offices.“In my spare time, I made things out of scrap metal,” he said. A favorite of his was making “big bugs.”He returned to Butler 10 years later to be closer to family, and to raise his growing family. He worked as a home builder.But his big switch over to full-time artist came about 20 years ago, after a friend introduced him to an art teacher. He eventually started selling his creations at the Pittsburgh Center for the Art and the annual Twin Lakes art show in Greensburg.The rest, they say, is history.
<h3>'They want specialty things'</h3>Secunda has sold many of his pieces at Mecum auto auctions across the country. There, he also meets prospective clients, who like what they see and commission him to do unique pieces from their own imaginations.“They want specialty things,” he said, “to add to their car collections and their second or third homes.”An art collector, it turned out, gave him the idea for the Trump statue. It surfaced during the 2016 presidential campaign.“(The collector) thought I should build a statue of Trump,” Secunda said. About that time, he heard someone on TV refer to Trump being “tough as nails.”Call it serendipity. The nail artist and Trump fan decided to go forward with the project at his studio, an Amish-built pole building at his home.Although a Trump supporter, Secunda stresses: “I don't try to browbeat anyone.” His customers, after all, come in all political stripes.Like all of his pieces in that medium, he uses torches to heat the nails, which are then bent, twisted, shaped and fused together.“The toughest parts of the Trump statue were the face and hands,” he recalled, “because it's difficult trying to get the rounded, multi-angle pieces together.”The famous Trump hair was no easy chore either. He said he had to melt brass using a brazing rod for the color. That same process was used for the “T”— like the “S” on Superman's chest — to stand out on the statue's chest.He took the finished product to a Mecum auction in Kissimmee, Fla. a month or two ago, for display, not quite sure about the reaction it would get. It got an overwhelming vote of approval.“A lot of car collectors are Trump fans,” he said, “but I was expecting a lot more (negativity).”Even the occasional anti-Trumper liked what they saw, sort of.“They told me, 'I hate the guy but (the statue) is pretty cool,' ” Secunda said.He's negotiating the sale with the customer, who lives in St. Petersburg, Fla.Secunda won't discuss the back-and-forth offers or disclose what the final price will be, but, to quote Trump, it's going be “bigly.”
