STEELY aesthetic
By Erica Louise Photos Yanni
M
ornington’s Joe Taranto welds artistry with engineering. The former engineer forges metal into art in his workshop, Steelscape. His creations include signage, fire pits, functional garden ornaments and more intricate designs. All are one-offs.
Art was not at the forefront of Joe’s mind when he completed his training in metal fabrication some 25 years ago. While his apprenticeship and industry experience laid the foundations for his creative endeavours, he steered towards metal art much later.
E ssence
14 | PENINSULA
October 2020
“I’d been designing and building industrial farm equipment for two decades. That training has set me up to build anything. It gave me the knowledge and confidence to know my work would be structurally sound. I broke away from agriculture machinery five years ago, as I wanted to be more artistic,” he said. Joe now works full time manipulating metals into aesthetic pieces of art. His material preference is Corten, which is a mixture of steel, copper and nickel.