SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (KELO) — An American philosopher once said, “It’s not the destination, it’s the journey.”
A local artist is a prime example, taking just as much pride in the pieces he collects to create his art, as he does the finished product.
Milling balls, rail spikes, shards of glass, doll parts, and coins.
“That’s an 1880’s San Francisco mint half eagle,” Sioux Falls artist Brad Giebink said.
It’s all in a day’s work — or lifetime of searching — Giebink.
“If I’m looking, if I’m thinking, I’m gaining, I’m making progress, even though it doesn’t look like it,” Giebink said.
His passion for discovering items began as a child with a ring near a former amusement park at 33rd and Spring in Sioux Falls.
“It was a real ring, real metal, and it had a little glinting diamond chip or something in it, and that was treasure,” Giebink said.
Giebink considers himself an outsider artist, specializing in found object assemblage art. The northern Black Hills are his playground.
These milling balls have been cleaned and placed in a gold pan found in Alaska. That’s far from where they started.
“Behind a little waterfall there was an accumulation of these milling balls that were all clumped together,” Giebink said.
A clump can lead to a major discovery.
“This chunk used to be bigger and when I first pulled it out I showed it to my son, called him over and said ‘what do you think this is?’, and there was a big rim on something and he goes ‘a coin?’ and I said ‘I don’t know, could be a washer’. Turned out to be a 19th century Reis coin from Portugal, which is now on the front of my elephant’s ear,” he said.
The discoveries didn’t end there.
“I ended up splitting it again, by gosh there’s an 1894 silver barber quarter,” Giebink said.
Once the treasure hunt is complete, the real work begins.
“I can’t just snap my fingers, I’ve got to work (grinder),” Giebink said.
Giebink says he won’t use 95% of what he finds, but when the project requires something specific he’s usually got plenty of it.
“Sometimes you have to go through a hundred pieces to find one that fits,” he Giebink said.
Finding those found pieces is often easier said than done.
“Especially if I keep moving it around you know. ‘Used to be here for ten years, now it’s not, where did I put it?'”, Giebink said.
There’s plenty to see in his home.
A motorcycle hangs on his wall with a seat made of porcupine jaw.
There’s a free standing military tank with removable snorkel, cannon, and bones that spell ‘war no more’.
This wall art started with a piece of iron, which reminded Giebink of a tower, and led to a fortress. The door is made of a book his father brought back from Germany following World War II.
“That’s why it’s so complicated. I see shape, color, form, texture in everything and it’s hard to find what’s really going to be the best.”
Giebink found a bent iron rod that he thought looked like a goose neck, but it wasn’t until he spotted a porcelain swan at his mother-in-laws that it all came together.
The story doesn’t end there when it comes to personalizing his artwork.
“The orange beak, they have orange beaks and I utilized, I crushed some Italian glass that came out of mosaics from my childhood home before it was tore down,” Brad Giebink said.
After decades of locating and creating, Giebink’s art is growing even more personal. His son, Jacob, is now involved in some projects.
“Every father wants their son to be at his side,” Giebink said.
Jacob Giebink is a local sheet metal worker. He’s also a welder.
“I just like the way it looks, the way that molten metal forming together looks before, during, and after. It’s really satisfying,” 27-year-old Jacob Giebink said.
Jacob started welding in high school, but it’s his love of the arts that has him welding and working alongside dad… an opportunity he doesn’t take for granted.
“It really means a lot to me, to go from helping out here and there with some of his art projects as a kid to now then having the ability to use welding as kind of a way to help out even more or make stuff even different, weirder, crazier (laugh),” Jacob Giebink said.
That wasn’t always the case. Growing up, Jacob’s friends were the ones who spent hours talking art with his dad.
“You were coming to hang out and then we were going to leave, I just got busy for ten minutes doing something, and now it’s like two hours and I’m sitting on the couch,” Jacob Giebink said.
In a house filled with art, this ship is one of Jacob’s favorites.
“It’s in the corner of a wall hanging, and to make a pirate ship coming out of that, and make it look so dimensional on top of using old items to create something we can all recognize, that really just blows my mind,” Jacob Giebink said.
Jacob says his dad’s art is all but priceless.
“It’s hard to put a price on something that should be appreciated,” Jacob Giebink said.
Dad isn’t done creating, and says the door is open to more collaborations.
“I have the repository, I have the stuff if he ever gets, in the future, inspired to weld that stuff together, I have high hopes,” Brad Giebink said.
As for his current collection, Brad hopes it will one day serve as an inspiration to others.
“I hope people see it and get something from it. If they don’t, I don’t care if they see it or not. I want people to get something from it,” Brad Giebink said.
And every piece comes with a story.
Brad Giebink was a student of Oscar Howe at the University of South Dakota. He also studied geology and engineering at the South Dakota School of Mines and Technology, laying the foundation for the artist he is today.
