about us

Hidden Dragon Art Unique Handmade Metal Art by Rebecca Rang & Art Schoenig

We started Hidden Dragon Art out of a deep love and appreciation for working metal. There is a certain beauty to forging and creating out of metals. We found that together we could create metal art in new and interesting ways. Many creations have evolved from time honored metal techniques such as whitesmithing. Others involve meshing these techniques with new technology to come up with innovative ways to create metal art.

Why Hidden Dragon? The name Hidden Dragon comes from the ancient Asian concept that the dragon of creativity lies within all of us hidden, and once found can be a powerful, dynamic energy. It seemed the right metaphor for the process of bringing art into the world and thus Hidden Dragon Art was born. We are constantly learning, honing our skills, and finding new modes of creativity.

We use Metal Artivity in making our art. It’s a creative process to use recycled metal in creative artsy ways. It involves looking at a piece of metal and saying, hey, bet you would look so cool if we painted you some candy apple red. We could hammer you into a flower, word of positivity, or dancing figures. Maybe splatter you with bronze and place gemstones on you. We can even make you a shiny Yee Haw vintage cowgirl with a turquoise heart. It can be whatever the metal shows us. Usually, the metal cooperates and feels quite fine and shiny living a new life of transformation as a piece of artsy goodness.

Our backgrounds are just as eclectic as our artwork. As an Anthropologist / Archeologist, Art a.k.a. Obi Art Kenobi has worked with and studied some of the earliest metal working sites in the UK. In his early years, he was apprenticed to Scottish armour makers and whitesmiths, got into the archeological trenches, hung out with the Hopi, and worked for the Park service. Art is also an avid RockHound and has been known to wander off roadsides in his quest for rocks. His many years of working in nature have deeply affected his choice of subjects. He has been a full time sculptor doing juried art shows for over 25 years. Many of these are out of the Greg Larson’s Sourcebook Top 300 national art shows.

Rebecca a.k.a. Dragon Girl currently holds degrees in physics and psychology, along with an eclectic mish mash of knowledge that comes along with way too many academia courses. In the art world, she is happily amused she can psychoanalyze quarks and build rocket ships of her own imagination. She has over 20 years of experience sculpting and has been in a number of juried art shows. She uses her knowledge, experience, and many times her intuition to create her artwork. She believes that concepts are important and likes to reflect the muses of positivity in her work. She believes that by fostering these muses we can find beauty in even a piece of recycled metal.

We work on pieces or projects in collaboration and also independently. We frequently bounce ideas off each other. We find our knowledge base ranges from ancient tools to quantum physics. We are always finding new shapes and ways to transform metal. We create all our pieces from scratch with lots of elbow grease and good ol’ fashioned hard work. They are all lovingly made by hand with the hope that they will go to good homes. We like to create pieces that lift the spirit and believe in creating artistry for the soul. We hope our artwork gives you joy.