Junk Sculptures: Peterson's Garage
Egg Harbor City, New Jersey
Tom Peterson has been an auto mechanic since he was 18, but he didn't make his first auto parts sculpture -- a robot -- until he was 31. He's made hundreds of artworks since then, fashioning them out of the worn-out auto parts that he replaces in his day job and mechanical junk that he finds curbside on trash days.
In addition to robots and skeletal dinosaurs and knights in armor, Tom has created a Jersey Devil, a Rocky Balboa, and his most famous work, an eight-foot-tall Statue of Liberty on wheels, made in 2007 out of old car parts, golf clubs, and gum ball machines.
Tom told us that his father and grandfather, who ran businesses at the same spot as his garage, had their DIY hobbies, but nothing equal to the scale of Tom's. He hates it when his artworks rust, and once told the Atlantic City Press, "If I had a lot of money, I would go out and buy stainless steel." Tom receives occasional commissions -- his work can be seen in other places around town -- but his real-world garage business usually keeps him pretty busy.