When tornados hit Rogers this May, Tom Flynn was stuck.
“We had so many trees over the driveway that we couldn't leave the house,” Flynn said. “There was a huge pecan tree that was on the shop here. The tree in our neighbor's yard pulled up our gas line and stretched our water line. We were without power for about five, six days. Each of those days, my job in the morning was to wake up and go drive and find a place that was open that served coffee, and get coffee, the one essential.”
On these daily quests for caffeine, Flynn said he became accustomed to the destruction surrounding his home. Yet, amidst the chaos, one mess was particularly eye-catching. The storm had plucked a trampoline from some family’s yard and wrapped it around a telephone pole.
“And it just got me to thinking,” he said. “I just retired, and I knew I could do another big sculpture, but I don't like doing the big sculptures. They're just a big responsibility, a lot of work. And so I just decided that I can remember it was 3 o'clock in the morning, I put out the first Facebook post asking for trampoline springs.”
Flynn is a metal sculptor, and his newest work, “Tornado Town,” is a culmination of his experience with the storm. He wanted to use the springs from trampolines to make a model of the tornado, but he knew it wouldn’t be complete without the town it wreaked havoc upon. So, he enlisted the help of local wood artist Michael Pantzer to bring his idea to life.
“Yes, we both went and we drove anywhere from Rogers to Bentonville to little flock to collect debris material,” Pantzer said.
Pantzer was lucky– his house was not damaged by the storm. But he’s no stranger to disaster and how it affects a community.
“In 1989, I did volunteer work for Hurricane Hugo that had hit South Carolina,” Pantzer said. “And that was the most powerful hurricane of that year, and so I did volunteer work along the coast, and the devastation was just unbelievable.”
This May, Pantzer and his wife tracked the storm from phone screens in a safe room under their house in Lowell. He immediately realized two things after emerging and seeing the state of the region.
“Okay, number one, I need to volunteer,” he said. “And then I had the idea, well, there should be some kind of sculpture, as, so to speak, a memorial, focus point. And Tom and I, we had met at an art event. And I'm a wood artist, and for a sculpture to be more weather-resistant, it should be out of steel. So I contacted him and called him, ‘Hey, that's my idea.’ And he said, ‘I had the same idea.’ And then we compared what our ideas are, and his was immediately more attractive. You know, creating this was a pretty amazing idea. And said, ‘Okay, I want to do this with you,’ and that's how we got started.”
The two artists set to work, calling upon neighbors to donate their trampoline springs or doing groundwork themselves.
As they collected hundreds of springs for the tornado and other bits of debris for the model town below it, they noticed their community come together, and a friendship began forming between the two men.
Though they work in different disciplines– Flynn metal and Pantzer wood– they both come from an engineering background.
“This is the first time I've actually co-created a piece with someone, or at least this big,” Flynn said. “And the funnest part was just getting to know each other and to communicate and finding out that we saw things just a little different from each other, but could come together. So it wasn't, ‘Oh, it was so fun, the welding or.’ It was the relationship. But I'm a relational type of guide, so that's sort of where I go.”
“For me, it was like— it started out with an idea, and then became a friendship,” Pantzer said. “Then, through the friendship, we were so committed to it that was the determination there. And then there was one point where it seemed like the sculpture was just pushing us to finish it.”
Now, months and thousands of welds later, “Tornado Town” is finished. It stands 9 feet tall and weighs almost 500 pounds. A large tornado, made from 470 springs, is suspended from a real ham radio antenna broken off in the storm.
It looms over a model Rogers, which includes houses, a church, cars and fallen trees. Locals will notice the Rogers water tower within the miniature landscape, which Flynn and Pantzer could view from the shop doors, a stone’s throw from Flynn’s home. The artists also crafted lightning from guide wires and a boat winch to add to the realism. Plus, 12 tiny trampolines fly around the funnel cloud as an homage to the sculpture's inspiration.
Flynn and Pantzer designed the piece to be transportable, with the tornado component able to be disassembled into five pieces. They want it to live in a public space, like XNA, a bank or possibly the University of Arkansas. The artists aim to put in front of as many eyes as possible, young or old. Flynn said disaster fatigue is a prevalent issue many Americans faced this year and hopes his art can help some people cope with their loss.
“Art will get people to tell their stories,” Flynn said. “And I think by telling a story about a suffering in your life, it's diminished. I remember someone saying once that when you share something, it cuts the pain in half. And also, when you share something lovely, it doubles the love, as in, the fact of sharing evens out the load for all of us, and I think, and I hope, this sculpture will get people to tell their stories.”
Pantzer notes that this fatigue is not limited to the adults paying the bills as they rebuild their homes– Children also bear the burden.
“I think, for with our display, kids will be more attracted to see the little house, the church, the cars, the fallen trees, the power lines down,” Pantzer said. “I think kids will be drawn to it and look at it, and they will have their own story, what they experienced.”
They hope the lighthearted nature of the sculpture will enable people to let down their walls and reflect on what they went through.
“It's whimsical,” Flynn said. “Yeah, there's a good word– whimsical. It's whimsical. And I think that'll help people to laugh at their own– we laugh at our own adversity. We're not afraid of adversity. We sort of laugh and joke about it. ‘Yeah, I had 12 trees down. How many did you have down,’ you know?”
For now, “Tornado Town” will live in Flynn’s metal shop, but come February, you’ll have a chance to see it in person. Flynn and Pantzer will display the sculpture at Ozark Beer Company in Rogers during their native tree giveaway. That’s just a temporary installment though, and they hope their art will find a permanent home in a public space.
Find Tom Flynn here.
Find Michael Pantzer here.
