Sculpting on Wheels
Automotive designer and sculptor Jamie Schena transforms scrap metal and mechanical components into artistic works inspired by motion, machinery, and transportation.
Sculpting on Wheels
Since he was a young boy, Jamie Schena has been fascinated with things that go. A veteran of automotive design by day, his metal sculpture reflects that affinity for motion.
Maybe it’s in the DNA. Back in his homeland of Trafalgar, Australia, his father runs a longstanding mechanical and engineering business that includes repairing trucks and tractors as well as designing and manufacturing agricultural machinery for the potato farming industry in Australia. Young Jamie was welding by the time he was eight, and pretty soon after that he was working for the family business as a fabricator/mechanic.
In those early years, he collected scrap metal and engine parts from his dad’s scrap bins to build automotive inspired sculptures.
“As a family, we raced go-karts as a sport,” he recalls. “My love for cars and racing grew the more I raced. At age 12, I had a personal sponsor for the race season. At the end of that season, I wanted to thank him so I built a sculpture using some of the scrap parts. Once people saw what I had made, I began receiving orders to have metal sculptures built. I have been making metal sculptures for 22 years.”
After college, Schena went to work as a designer and sculptor for General Motors in Australia. Three-and-a-half years later, he moved to California in 2014 to do similar work for GM in the United States. Off the clock, he does more of the same. Just like the early days with his family, he still gets his greatest inspiration from all things automotive.
“I am more inspired by objects than by people,” he admits. “I enjoy repurposing automotive parts and giving the material new life through industrial art. However, I do find it amazing how Renaissance sculptors were able to achieve the level of detail and accuracy in stone when creating their masterpieces.”
He may prefer metal over marble, but that doesn’t make him any less of a Renaissance man. Every artist is shaped by his era. Schena’s window of creativity is the four-wheeled, fast paced 21st century.