Gordon Poe, left, and Daniel Freuler have a good time making art out of old sawblades and other scrap. KEVIN HEIMBIGNER photo

OCEAN PARK – Gordon Poe and Daniel Freuler claim, “We can cut just about anything we can get our hands on.” The two Ocean Park men are unlikely artists and their “canvas” can be eight-foot sheets of steel, cast iron frying pans, antique saw blades, hand saws – you name it.

The two men are in their second year of “plasma-art.” Poe uses a plasma cutter to create ironworks silhouettes and Freuler uses a marking pen to draw free hand the pattern the two have decided upon on whatever material is being used. “With the plasma cutter, we can do much more detail and an unlimited variety of work compared to what the $10,000 computer machines can do,” Poe relates.

“My machine uses air and electricity to cut through up to one-inch thick steel. I got it in Astoria,” Poe explains. He purchased the plasma cutter to repair fishing boats, boat trailers, and make one-of-a-kind oyster dredge baskets used up and down the coast.

“I’m a fisherman by trade and a farmer when it comes to fixing things,” Poe says with a grin of his talents with the cutter. “This art thing came about when Dan and I met up and saw that people really liked what we made.”

Freuler was a detail sketch artist, but couldn’t make ends meet with the cost of supplies and frames. “There isn’t anything I haven’t been able to draw that Gordon can’t cut out of just about any material,” he says of the intricate creations.

Every art object the pair creates is an original. “If people see something we’ve made for someone else and want it, we make theirs just a little different,” Poe says. “Give us a picture or an idea and we will come up with anything you would like,” Freuler concludes.

The two have fashioned an eight-foot bull elk from steel, made a mother goose fairy tale design from an antique wok, and used the plasma cutter to cut and shade a chinook salmon on stainless steel.

Freuler has a forest scene attached to the tailgate of his pickup. The pair has used as their subject lighthouses, ships, western scenes, and animals such as elk, deer, bear, and even a rooster. Logging camps and scenes from Willapa Bay are their specialty.

“We get a lot of satisfaction from the look on our customer’s faces. One lady wanted a design of her husband’s ’57 Ford and she had tears in her eyes when she saw how our work turned out,” Poe says with pride. “They were going to put the silhouette outside but it ended up over their fireplace.”

The pair’s future plans include doing a design of Lewis and Clark’s Expedition on a mammoth five-foot tapered antique saw blade. They are hopeful a local official will become interested and use their piece for the bicentennial. “The saw blade is over 100 years old and is three-eighths inches thick. It will take me six hours to cut,” Poe says.

Poe wasn’t always an artist. He was born and raised north of Ocean Park on “North Beach Peninsula.” He worked as a commercial fishermen, crabbing, oystering, and gillnetting “until it became a hobby rather than a way of life.” Poe says, “I’d quit the art business in a minute if fishing came back. I love it.”

Freuler grew up in Yacolt and at 17 left with the circus. Somewhere in California he decided to leave the elephants he cared for and return north, painting pictures on shingles using blackberry juice to earn his way home. He was in and out of trouble prior to 1991 and learned some of his sketching techniques and shading while incarcerated.

“I have really enjoyed my art. I think Gordon and I are on to something good with the plasma cutter. We are real proud of what we do.”

Poe concludes with his usual grin beaming from under the bill of his cap, “When this becomes work we’ll quit, but right now it sure is fun.”

Poe and Freuler will be selling their art in Ocean Park across from Oman and Sons both July 4 and Rod Run weekends. To see the genius of their creations or to place custom orders you may reach them at 665-5973 any other time.