Milwaukee VA Medical Center

Willis Johnson, World War II Veteran, found metal sculpting as a hobby when he retired 20 years ago.

Willis Johnson spent most of his life not even knowing he was an artist.

The World War II Veteran spent two years in the Marines from 1943 to 1945. He was shot five days after arriving on Iwo Jima.

After the Marines, he got a job as a log trucker.

But when he retired 20 years ago, he needed a hobby.

“Mama,” as he affectionately calls his wife, was the one who got him started.

“Mama asked me to build her a couple birds for the yard,” he said. “They weren’t good, but they got better.”

He uses blow torches, welding equipment, plasma cutters and a variety of metals to create his art. His metalwork piece, “Dragon,” earned him first place in this year’s National Veterans Creative Arts exhibit. It was created with steel and brass, along with silicon and phosphorous bronze.

“You make it like an armored chair,” he said. “You start cutting the metal in lengths and wrap them around. But when you start putting the color on like the bronze and the brass … wow! I just love doing it. When you take a bunch of metal and see what you can create out of it, that’s nice.”

Johnson figures he spends about six hours a day, seven days a week, working on his metal projects. It took him about a month to make “Dragon.”

“I’m usually in my shop every day in the wintertime. You can just get lost in that time and not think about anything else.

Sometimes Mama thinks (I spend too much), so I have to sell them and make some money,” he chuckled.

He normally puts some of his pieces in an art gallery in Roseburg. He figures he’ll eventually sell “Dragon” for about $3,000.

As for his military days, he’d rather talk about his artwork.

“Oh, I try not to think about it, but you can’t forget,” he said. “It’s something you just don’t want to talk about much, but art, that helps you escape everything.”

Even if he doesn’t get rich off his creations, that’s OK by him.

“It’s not like I’m making minimum wage,” he said. “It’s just fun.”

For more on the overall art exhibit, click here.