Lawyers art ain’t junk

But Peter Noble had a much more material motivation behind turning a rusty, old water tank into a work of art. 

“I’m a compulsive hoarder… I hate to see good things going to waste,” Mr Noble said.

The chief executive of community legal centre, Arc Justice, found the inspiration for his foray into art at the Eaglehawk dump.

“I saw this copper hot water tank and immediately thought of the great colours which it would turn as it corroded,” he said.

With no experience either sculpting or metal working, the story might have ended there.

Fortunately, Mr Noble had handyman friend who, among other odd jobs, once worked as a blacksmith at the Swan Hill Pioneer Settlement.

“It was my wacky idea and then John Doyle brought the brains to it,” he said. 

With Mr Doyle’s tutelage, Mr Noble set about transforming the tank into a seedling – a popular motif at the two men’s church. 

“We light a small fire inside the tank then doused it with water,” Mr Noble said. 

“The rapid heating then cooling made it as pliable as clay and relatively easy to hammer out and cut into shapes.”

Mr Noble said the hours spend banging away on his driveway were a welcome change to his day job championing rights of the socially disadvantaged.

“I’ve always wanted to do something with copper, it’s such a lovely material which takes on elusive colours that are largely out of your hands,” he said. 

He did give nature a helping hand, however, and applied corrosive material to the leaves and stem.

Not only will the sculpture continue to alter over time, it will appear different during the day as the light and temperature changes.

“At times it’ll look a deeper green and on really dry days it’ll take on a powdered, whitish colour,” Mr Noble said.

On Tuesday, he hung the sculpture on St Matthew’s Anglican Church, above its community garden and kids’ club.

“I’m hoping it will encourage people to create objects of beauty with the ordinary things that are around them,” he said.