name, close to National Park in the centre
of the North Island.
He lived there for six years until 2007
when he had the idea of creating a giant
T-Rex sculpture from driftwood.
He was working for a canoeing
business and one night in a bar he
told his boss that he wanted to make a
driftwood sculpture. His boss said that
he had the tools Jack could borrow, and
Jack had the skills for the job.
“I suppose it wa s a n e x per i ment rea l ly.
It ended up being 5m high,” Jack says.
The big sculpture is called Raurimu Rex
and it’s placed near the spiral lookout. It
quickly became a local attraction.
“After I made it, people encouraged
me to do more of the same,” he says.
“I had previously done some bar work
and care jobs and while caring for a guy
in Queenstown, I saw some sculptural
work his daughter was doing, mainly
using straight pieces of wood. I guess
that put the idea in my head.”
Jack then settled down in Whanganui
to make driftwood sculptures full time.“Getting a 180P
MagMate MIG welder
was a great step. I
could weld things
up in a quarter of
the time”Shared shed
The old wool store, now called
‘Bedford Studios’, is a shared artists’
space where the walls are covered
in murals.
Jack shares it with mural artist
Simon Ormerod, wood and glass
artist Hamish Webster, and steel
brazier–maker Tim Holman.
Visit openstudios.co.nz/studio/
bedford-ave-studio/.The old wool store — a shared shed for artistsNo lack of space in this shed