Artist’s ‘Odditoys’ bring sense of whimsy to his latest work

Maybe bring a child along with you when you go see artist Steve Bormes’ new creations later this week and next.

Because if you don’t understand his Odditoys, as he has dubbed this collection of found art, someone younger than you will.

Bormes learned that when he displayed his lighted art pieces at Rug and Relic, the brick-and-mortar store he and his wife, Tove, ran at 8th & Railroad Center for almost 18 years. The past 18 months or so, he has worked on his art full time, going to his studio as soon as he can every morning and not looking up until he realizes he is late for the evening meal. And he does this seven days a week.

“My biggest fans in the gallery were under 12,” he said. “I would see their eyes get big and see their mother or father walk right past it. But that was fun. Kids from 3 to 12 years old … just loved these things. They’re made for adults, but if kids get it, then I always feel like I succeeded.”

Bormes now works out of a studio he calls Imaginarium behind the 8th & Railroad Center loading dock. While he has not abandoned the large lighted pieces that have brought him attention, he has concentrated on smaller items the past few months. He has almost 70 pieces now and expects to add another dozen or so before a showing at his studio Saturday, followed by an event with other artists Dec. 3 at Rehfeld’s Art & Framing.

The word for these, Bormes said, is whimsical. He uses children’s toys, the little athletes from foosball tables, guitar string, anything spiky and innumerable other pieces he has collected.

Three old croquet balls in red, green and gold, for example, were placed on a curved piece of wood, adorned with spiky hair and dubbed “Jamaican Bobsled Team.” The inspiration came because the croquet balls are the color of the Jamaican flag, Bormes said.

If his viewers see something else in his pieces, he’s OK with that.

“Whimsy is my game,” Bormes said. “A lot of people want to look deep into it and tell me what they see in it. I think, wow, I didn’t go that far, but I’m glad you did.”

Bormes describes himself as “an outsider artist, self-taught, assemblage, found-object sculptor.” It was a profession no one would have predicted when he was growing up in Aberdeen. His last art class came in eighth grade. Bormes’ father was a physician, and three brothers followed in that path. Bormes thought he would, too, and during his years at the University of South Dakota, he focused on science and math.

Until he realized that wasn’t his calling. For years, though, he wasn’t sure what it was, and years ago at a career day at Roncalli High School he admitted he was still searching. That honesty, he joked, meant he was never called back as a return speaker.

Right after he graduated from USD, he worked as a bouncer — best job ever, Bormes said, because that’s where he met his future wife. He also tried stints as a door-to-door insurance salesman — “worst job ever” — and a communicable disease specialist with the state Department of Health, which he described as enjoyable, plus it used his science expertise. He also sold office supplies on Native American reservations in the two Dakotas before starting his own tree business in Aberdeen, Out on a Limb.

If he hadn’t been reluctant to invest $25,000 in a new chipper — and if it hadn’t been such strenuous work — he might still be climbing trees. Instead, when his mother suggested he come meet the Turkish traveling salesman who had just sold her a rug, he was so impressed with the beauty of the carpet that he offered to travel with seller Hasan Demir around the United States.

After three years of putting 60,000 miles on his vehicle, Steve and Tove Bormes opened Rug and Relic as an outlet for the carpets, kilims and other goods. That’s when he began working as an artist part time.

He didn’t think of himself as an artist, however. That didn’t happen until he received encouragement from two artists and professors, the late Carl Grupp and Liz Bashore Heeren.

“They told me it was (art), and it wasn’t a big deal to admit it,” Bormes said. “They gave me the freedom to try this.”

Bormes’ lighted art can be seen in restaurants such as Sanaa’s 8th Street Gourmet, Parker’s Bistro, DaDa Gastropub and Ben’s Brewing Co. in Yankton. The latter, in a former airplane factory, now has multiple Bormes-designed airplanes hanging from the ceiling and on display.

The main influences on his style are two cartoon TV shows, “The Flintstones” and “The Jetsons,” and book author Dr. Seuss. He relies on a network of pickers to help him find the pieces he can use in his work. That includes Bob and Sandy Dean of Aunt-T’s-Ques Wayside Shoppe in Hartford and Jon Hawley in Sioux Falls.

The Deans have been in the antiques business for more than 50 years. On one of Bormes’ first visits, he asked for potato ricers, hoping to score six or eight. Instead, Bob Dean offered him 35. Now, the Deans know to save every potato ricer — and many other objects — for Bormes.

“Right now, he’s been buying dippers,” Bob Dean said. “He asked for ice skates the other day. And roller skates.”

“We have a sense of the variety he needs,” Sandy Dean added.

The Deans have seen some of their finds show up in Bormes’ work, but the Odditoys he has created have been kept private except for Bormes’ wife and a brother. That will change soon.

“I make stuff I love and see what happens,” Bormes said.

Odditoys, a collection of small works by artist Steve Bormes, will go public from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday at the 8th and Railroad loading dock. Entrance is accessible through the Sticks and Steel store. Odditoys also will be on display from 6 to 8 p.m. on First Friday, Dec. 3, at Rehfeld’s Art & Framing, 431 N. Phillips Ave. Prices range from $50 to $450.