Some clouds this evening will give way to mainly clear skies overnight. Low around 65F. Winds SSW at 10 to 15 mph..

Some clouds this evening will give way to mainly clear skies overnight. Low around 65F. Winds SSW at 10 to 15 mph.

Some clouds this evening will give way to mainly clear skies overnight. Low around 65F. Winds SSW at 10 to 15 mph..

Some clouds this evening will give way to mainly clear skies overnight. Low around 65F. Winds SSW at 10 to 15 mph.

Travis Sorenson, who creates sculptures out of his Belle Fourche studio, took home top honors for his “Maximus Moose” entry into the SculptureWalk Sioux Falls in 2021. Courtesy photo

Weighing in at approximately 500 pounds, sculptor Travis Sorenson and a handful of helpful hands lifted Maximus Moose during its May 2021 installation at the SculptureWalk Sioux Falls. Courtesy photo

Travis Sorenson, right, is pictured with one of his stainless-steel guitars he creates to raise funds for veterans. Alongside Sorenson is Big Kenny, of the country duo Big & Rich, center, and Niles Harris, a local veteran. Courtesy photos

Travis Sorenson, who creates sculptures out of his Belle Fourche studio, took home top honors for his “Maximus Moose” entry into the SculptureWalk Sioux Falls in 2021. Courtesy photo

Weighing in at approximately 500 pounds, sculptor Travis Sorenson and a handful of helpful hands lifted Maximus Moose during its May 2021 installation at the SculptureWalk Sioux Falls. Courtesy photo

Travis Sorenson, right, is pictured with one of his stainless-steel guitars he creates to raise funds for veterans. Alongside Sorenson is Big Kenny, of the country duo Big & Rich, center, and Niles Harris, a local veteran. Courtesy photos

BELLE FOURCHE –– From his Belle Fourche studio, local sculptor Travis Sorenson continues to create works that gain prominent honors while simultaneously using his art to raise funds for philanthropic efforts.

Melding his love of welding and fabrication, Sorenson creates works of art displayed around the country, winning numerous awards and his most recent piece is no exception as it took home top honors.

“Maximus Moose” is prominently displayed in the 17th SculptureWalk Sioux Falls, one of the largest exhibitions of sculptures in the country. The SculptureWalk is an exhibit of outdoor sculptures displayed year-round from the Washington Pavilion to Falls Park in downtown Sioux Falls. The sculptures are owned by the artists and loaned to the exhibit for one year where the sculptures are promoted to the public for sale.

Spanning approximately five-and-a-half by six-and-a-half feet and weighing in at about 500 pounds, Maximus and his larger-than-life features are displayed from neck to nose, visually akin to a taxidermized shoulder mounted animal.

Maximus’ metallic facade protrudes from a ramp-like pedestal with his stainless-steel neck and head composed of layers of quarter-inch, stainless-steel rods, carrying the eye downward to the dewlap, the longitudinal skin flap that serves as one of the species’ distinctly identifying features.

The royal figure is crowned by an impressively splayed rack, outlined with upward facing stainless steel points. Between the forked tines, Sorenson supplemented the grandiose rack by ornamentally filling the paddle with copper, richening the depth of one of the creature’s most eye-catching features.

Rather than purchasing the pricy material in sheet form, Sorenson said he worked with recycled copper piping to add the rust-colored flair.

“A four-by-eight-foot sheet of copper right now is about $5,000,” he said. “Which is just insane.”

Although not entirely novel to the artist, who regularly repurposes a wide range of salvaged materials in his art, from washers and nuts to chrome ball bearings and bike chains, the added feature turned out to be an arduous labor of love.

“The only recycled (copper) you find that is fairly thick is copper pipe,” Sorenson said. “It’s a little more work, but it was worth it.”

In metallurgy, annealing is a type of heat treatment that alters the properties of a material to increase its ductility and reduce its hardness, making it more workable.

“And then you flatten it out … which actually hardens itself back up,” Sorenson said. “And then you can shape it, move it, and then heat it again if you want.”

The product achieved from the tedious process functions to create amalgamated layers of patchworked copper.

Having primarily dabbled in smaller quantities of copper in the past, the loftier scope of the intended artistic effect increased the sculpture’s overall level of difficulty.

Sorenson appreciates the positive impacts that using recycled materials in his artwork can have on the environment. Even so, his passion projects are far from free.

“The last couple of years, it’s gotten crazy (costly),” he said. “It’s actually probably … close to three times what it was.”

The ongoing pandemic conditions are somewhat to blame for the hike in material expense, Sorenson said. Even steel, which is generally known as one of the more economical metallic materials, depending on supply, demand, and a host of other market fluctuations, has increased by 40% in recent years, he estimated.

In addition to the increased difficulty copper added to Maximus Moose, Sorenson said that it is the biggest of the sculptures he’s created for the event.

Sculptures displayed in the SculptureWalk are judged by their peers for artistic merit and creativity. The artists who enter the annual event come from across the country and world. Sorenson said that can make for some stiff competition.

Considered alongside 61 competitor sculptures, Sorenson’s Maximus Moose was awarded the event’s highest honor – the Virtuoso Best of Show award, given to artists who represent the best-of-the-best sculptures by fellow SculptureWalk sculptors.

Sorenson said walking away with top honors in an event that features talented sculptors that span the globe is humbling and awe-inspiring.

“(It’s) something you think you’ll never achieve,” he said. “Because it is the best in the world.”

Depending on the year, Sorenson said that one artist is selected for the top Best of Show honors and approximately between 8-12 are honored with Best of Show II awards.

Of Sorenson’s four entries in the SculptureWalk over the last five years, all four have been selected and recognized with awards, taking home three Best of Show II special honors, and the top honors last year.

• 2017: “Whirlwind of Life,” an 8-foot-six-inch-tall stainless-steel sculpture depicting a large dragonfly surrounded by a whirlwind of cattails and 15 smaller dragonflies

• 2018: “Horse,” an intricate shoulder mount stallion design made of stainless steel recycled from an old pull-down security gate and cheekbones composed of recycled material from a bench salvaged from the former McDonald’s in Spearfish

• 2019: “Cimarron,” a 36-by-24-inch stainless steel bighorn sheep sculpture, weighing in at approximately 150-pounds

Of the 58 sculptures at in 2019 SculptureWalk, Sorenson was among four who achieved SculptureWalk “Virtuoso Sculptor” certification, an honor reserved for artists who’ve won three Best of Show awards.

Sorenson’s wife, Shawn, said the recognition is well deserved.

The annual SculptureWalk Sioux Falls event was not held in 2020 due to the pandemic, so Sorenson’s Cimarron from 2019 was held over and displayed in Sioux Falls for two years.

Sorenson’s Horse sculpture was one of four selected to be displayed in the Sturgis Art Walk, unveiled June 2021, and the only South Dakota artist among the selections which are displayed in downtown Sturgis.

The local artist, who has a handful of sculptures featured around the country, including Mankato, Minn., and Mason City, Iowa, has also received a host of awards and honors earned locally in art events throughout the Black Hills area.

Sorenson’s Maximus Moose currently calls the east side of Phillips Avenue between 11th and 12th streets in Sioux Falls home. The figure is featured on the event’s website at https://sculpturewalksiouxfalls.com/sculptures/2021/maximus-moose/ where it is listed at $37,500 for purchase.

Although the experienced sculptor continues to nurture and grow his artistic expression, which is evident by the numerous awards, accolades, and recognition his efforts have earned, Sorenson is shifting some of his energy into using his art to benefit those in need. Raise awareness and garner support

“I kind of want to bring attention to the donation stuff, and I’m trying to get other people to help do that,” he said. “Use the arts to help raise money and funds, stuff like that.”

One of Sorenson’s 2016 creations drew inspiration from music.

In the fall of 2016, Sorenson and his wife were lucky enough to get meet and greet passes for a concert being put on by Big & Rich, the country music duo made up of Kenny Alphin and John Rich, at the Deadwood Mountain Grand in Deadwood.

On a whim, Sorenson brought to the show a guitar sculpture he’d begun working on just three weeks prior, hoping to show the musical twosome. During the event, Sorenson seized an opportunity and donated the guitar to Big & Rich and launched an artistic collaborative friendship between the artists.

Niles Harris, a Deadwood Army veteran who was the inspiration for the Big & Rich song “8th of November” has also become a main character in the group’s fundraising efforts.

The Battle of the 173rd Airborne Division on Nov. 8, 1965, was led by Niles Harris, of Deadwood. Harris, an Army veteran, was 19 years old when days after he deployed to Vietnam, he and 29 others in the Second Platoon were attacked by 1,200 North Vietnamese Army soldiers. During Operation Hump, Nov. 8, 1965, 48 Americans and more than 400 North Vietnamese soldiers died.

Since then, the group has worked out a system in which Sorenson designs and builds the sculptures and fundraising efforts are promoted via Big & Rich’s worldwide social media presence. And it has paid off.

In 2021, Sorenson created his third guitar sculpture which was later auctioned by Big Kenny, netting $31,000 for the group’s philanthropic efforts.

Supporting those who currently serve our country, or those who have, is an integral part of Sorenson’s passions.

Sorenson, who battles a medical condition himself, said he continues to take inspiration from his wife and that his art is a useful outlet to work through those struggles.                                                                                                                   “You’ve got to take life as it comes and keep going,” Sorenson said.

Sorenson said that the ongoing health conditions of both he and Shawn continue to inspire his art and hopes to continue to give back.

“(What keeps me going is) … inspiring other people, and helping other people, and the challenge to see what else you can create,” he said.

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