“It’s too organic of a process for that.”

Kris Jolley, the store manager at the MSU Surplus Store, first came up with the idea to make a Sparty statue out of scrap metal more than a year ago, he said.

“We were talking about different things we could do in parades and help promote ourselves and promote recycling as a whole,” Jolley said.

The project was meant to be ready for last year’s Homecoming, but it was quickly determined that more time was necessary, so the date was set for Homecoming 2011.

Sheerin has been welding and grinding iron into art for more than 10 years and has created multiple permanent art projects for public display throughout the state and shows such as ArtPrize. Still, the Sparty project has tested the mettle of the experienced artist.

“The Spartan project is definitely to date my (most fun) project yet,” he said. “I’ve really enjoyed working on it, and it’s been a challenge because it was my first time doing human form.”

What’s old is new
To get started on the project, Jolley reached out to Friedland Industries, a scrap yard in Lansing where the MSU Surplus Store sends 1.4 million pounds of scrap metal each year, he said.

The people at Friedland Industries then connected Jolley to Sheerin, who he commissioned to be the main artist on the project.

Jolley met with Sheerin and pitched him the idea, and with Friedland Industries on board as the sponsor of the project, it was officially underway.

“What I really hope it does is inspire people in how they reuse items to make something that’s really cool,” Jolley said.

“Every piece of that scrap metal Sparty is scrap metal — nothing new is purchased on there.”

The scrap metal Sparty will be accompanied by a chariot, which is made out of recycled metal, and is going to be a part of the Homecoming parade.

After Homecoming, the statue will be displayed at the MSU Surplus Store and will serve as a reminder to students about the importance of recycling.

“You don’t need to buy new things to create,” Jolley said. “You can continually reuse and re-purpose things.”

Hunting and gathering
Sheerin spent the majority of his yearlong process simply collecting the items necessary to create a life-size scrap art Sparty.

He made countless trips to the scrap yard as he worked off and on for the Sparty project, grabbing more potential supplies each time.

“I’ve always been seeking things out either for the uniqueness, the shape, the texture (or) the possibility of what it could be,” Sheerin said. “I’m always in search of things.”

Whether by design or not, Sheerin has done his best to turn the shop he works at in Lansing into a makeshift scrap yard throughout the years, as the area is filled with mountains of spare scrap metal parts.

He can barely step through the metal maze, which includes five semi-truck trailers full of supplies, without stepping on some other scrap piece.

“I have got stuff here that followed me from my original studio, which was a one-car garage attached to a house that I lived in, and that was 13 years ago,” he said.

Sheerin said he consistently catches flack from people about how much stuff he keeps around his shop.

His collecting habits have worked out to his advantage on this project, however, as the muffler that forms the majority of Sparty’s leg was laying around his shop for 10 years, he said.

“Even with everything I have to tap into, I still don’t necessarily have the things I need when I go to reach for them, and that’s something that slows down that creative process,” Sheerin said.

The finished product contains all kinds of scrap metal, including other mufflers, exhaust pipes and motorcycle windshield brackets among other items. The only elements on the statue that aren’t recycled are hardware, such as screws, Sheerin said.

Collecting all of the pieces necessary to create the Sparty and chariot — which are estimated to weigh more than 500 pounds each — took a long time. Sheerin said he went through several design changes as he acquired new parts or simply had new insights.

“I’m driven by my inspiration and what I’m trying to do and just trying to put together a really cool piece of art,” he said.

Going green
The recycled art statue symbolizes the efforts of the MSU Surplus Store to increase recycling and sustainability practices, Jolley said.

“Primarily it’s related to our whole goal, which is diverting waste,” he said. “(The statue) promotes reuse which is what we’re here for.”

The scrap metal Sparty also will be used by the store to assist in some of their educational programs, Jolley said.

Brittney Hoszkiw, executive director of the Old Town Commercial Association in Lansing, is very familiar with Sheerin’s work, as he helped create and regularly contributes to Lansing’s Old Town Scrapfest every year. Scrapfest is a scrap metal art show which the association has hosted each summer since 2009.

“It’s one thing to create something, but I think it requires someone with much more vision to be able to look at something outside of what its traditional use is to come up with something new and unique,” Hoszkiw said.

Sheerin has a great local reputation as an artist and is very community-minded, she said. To Sheerin, recycling and reusing old products is natural.

“I was green before it was cool to be green,” Sheerin said with a laugh.

“I’ve always been a resourceful person. I don’t like to see things wasted.”

If it wasn’t for people being so wasteful and not reusing their own products, however, Sheerin wouldn’t have as many items to choose from for his art projects, he said.

“It’s a more efficient way to recycle if I’m able to take something and put some value into the energy and resources that went into creating it in the first place, and then expend just a little bit of energy and (resources) to turn it into something else,” Sheerin said.