Bill Arnold "Wireman" twisted & painted fence wire raven sculpture on post. Sculpture may be removed from post. Self-taught Outsider Artist Bill Arnold, known as "Wireman" bended discarded wire fence given to him by local farmers to create his wildlife sculptures. He described his art as realism, "seeing something and then finding out it's not real . . . like when you first put a wire hawk on a post, and have crows diving on it." William E. Arnold, from Wilkinson, IN, has had a lifelong love of animals and by the age of 14 had taught himself taxidermy from library books. Arnold has a background as a float sculptor for the Indianapolis 500 Festival Parade. In 1983 he began creating wreaths and baskets from grapevines, which he sold at wholesale to local flower shops. He began his work with barbed wire and fence wire when he saw rolls of wire laying in a field at a four-way stop. Arnold said, "I was on the way to pull vines and I saw rolls of wire lying in the pastures and thought it was a buffalo lying in the grass." In 1989 Arnold made Christmas decorations for the Indianapolis Museum of Art, including a 14-foot grapevine tree and 125 feet of grapevine garland. By 1993 Arnold had opened The Indiana Field Guide Park at his home in Wilkinson, IN. The two acre park included approximately 100 animal sculptures and over one thousand types of plants. The sculpture has created large scale pieces for the Indianapolis Zoo, Monument Circle Holiday Season, the City of Carmel, Indianapolis Museum of Art, and private collections 11 1/2"H x 17"W x 7"D (sculpture only) , 90"H x 14"W x 8"D (sculpture on post)