This past winter, we picked up a couple of these beautiful Garden Fish sculptures by Jesse Meyer. Thanks to them, we’ve been getting that little rush of spotting a fish out of the corner of our eye — right from the kitchen window.
Jesse Meyer is a Milwaukee-based artist who hand-crafts these figurative fish sculptures from steel, stainless steel, and bronze. They’re available in two sizes (12″ and 16″), a variety of finishes, and “bow” to the right or left.
Here’s more info about the finishes and inspiration from Jesse’s site.
Materials and Finishes
Steel
Steel fish are left raw and uncoated and in a short time acquire a beautiful rusted finish.
Stainless Steel
Stainless steel fish come with a variety of patterns ground into their surfaces along with a subtle range of color applied by heat and/or chemical patina for a textural effect. They are then clear coated to help protect against the elements.
Bronze
Bronze fish offer the richest colors and largest range of finish possibilities. I use many of the same methods as the stainless fish, such as grinding in patterns, heat application, and chemical patinas. Because of the nature of bronze the patinas offer a great range of possibilities and rich warm colors. They too are then clear coated to help protect them from the elements.
Inspiration
I recently set up a large aquarium in my home. I remember the most enticing aspect of the whole endeavor was creating the environment within the tank that my fish would inhabit.
While sipping on some coffee with fish on the brain, I was looking out over my patio and envisioned fish swimming and schooling amongst the landscape.
From this came the thought to create sculptural fish and compose them in a manner that juxtapose the inherent essence of a strictly aquatic creature with a terrestrial landscape. Whereby providing these simplified and distilled clues of a simple stream-line fish form, giving them only the slightest graceful curve of the body, and organizing them in a composition that suggests the activities of movement and schooling, the eye and mind fill in the spaces in between with life, activity, and story; though they swim not in water, but on air.
Inspiration via Jesse Meyer
How to buy
Garden Fish are available here on Jesse’s Etsy shop. Prices range from $75 to $175 per fish depending on size and material chosen.
They would make a great gift for the angler who’s impossible to buy for, as a way to commemorate an epic trip or catch, or as a small backyard monument to a lifelong love of fly fishing.