New Cumberland’s amazing ‘scrapyard’

One of my direct routes to West Virginia from northeast Ohio was down Route 11 to Route 2 on the West Virginia side of the Ohio River. At New Cumberland, Route 2 climbs a steep embankment and rewards the motorist with stunning views of the river on one side and a residential section that includes many stately houses and the historical society’s museum.

Amid this natural beauty and shady lawns is a scrapyard owned by Ken Sinsel, a metal artist whose skill, creativity and genius are expressed through metal sculptures that invite gawkers to stop and take a tour.

Ken and his daughter Joy Sinsel are the sole creators of these massive sculptures, which have quickly become a Hancock County tourist attraction. Their work also can be found also in New Cumberland and Weirton parks as commissioned, public art. His front-yard gallery’s masterpieces include a life-size horse and 15-foot-tall dragon whose throat spews smoke and whose humps and tail undulate above and below the yard.

The outdoor gallery stops traffic and encourages visitation; tire tracks on the tree lawn suggest that at least one gawker almost lost control of his or her vehicle while trying to take in the sights (without slowing down). Across the road, on a precipitous and narrow strip of land overlooking the Ohio River, more creations beckon, including an angular fish priced at $495.

“Somebody will buy it. It just takes the right person to come along,” Ken says.

From the street, these pieces look like well-executed metal sculptures, but their true composition and genius come into focus once one’s eyes are close enough to discern the thousands of bolts, springs, hinges, chains, car parts, and tools that comprise each statue. An astute observer will notice that curved surfaces on the sculptures are often common shovels, sans the handle, or in the case of the horse, the base of a log carrier pressed into service as a saddle.

“Somebody gave it to me, and that’s how I got started on the horse,” Ken says as he gives me a tour of the gallery. “I just started laying out pieces and seeing how they would go together.”

When Ken found several engine pistons in a scrapyard, the horse got his hooves. Between the pistons and ribbons of scrap-metal mane are flywheels, a garden-rake head, tin snips, dozens of wrenches, and a spoon his wife had discarded.

Joy says a frame of sheet metal and bolts undergirds the creation, which was Ken’s first after his father-in-law taught him how to use an electric welder.

“Carl Quinn of New Manchester,” Ken says of his mentor. “He had been a certified welder for 35 years, but he was getting sick and talked me into buying (the welder). I’d been a woodworker for as long as I can remember, and he taught me how to weld.”

Ken practiced on whatever scrap he had around the house and soon found himself creating shapes and figures rather than randomly welded globs of iron. A short time after beginning his hobby, he asked Joy to assist him by holding a piece while he welded; afterward, she too became interested in creating scrapyard art.

“Now she welds by herself,” Ken says.

Her works include a scorpion, a pig, flowers, and a catfish. Like her father, she rarely refers to a photo, drawing, or plan. All it takes to get a project going is an unusually shaped piece of scrap that inspires the artists’ imagination.

“You look at a piece, a wrench, or a sawblade—or like on the horse, a hubcap—and you think of animals that might have an anatomy like that. And then you start looking for other shapes that would (express) that anatomy,” Ken says of the creative process.

Depending on what scrap they have on hand, a small sculpture can come together in a matter of days once the creativity is flowing. Joy says her father will work from early morning until dark once he gets moving on a sculpture. Other pieces, such as the dragon, have required a year or more of scrounging for the right scrap. They work in an outdoor studio, the driveway to a small garage where scrap and equipment are stored and secured.

Once a week, Ken and Joy cross the river to Steubenville, Ohio, to rummage through the recycling scrapyard. Material from defunct steel mills in the region ends up at the yard, and Ken finds all manner of hand tools and large hardware pieces mixed in with less-inspiring scrap.

“A lot of people will say ‘How come you are using all those good tools in these things?’” Ken says. “But I got my own tools, so I don’t need these.” Among unusual tools and gadgets Ken and Joy have embedded in a sculpture are a Model T Ford wrench and various gauges and precision machining tools. Everything from a gas-pump nozzle to kitchen-knife blades, from car springs to an engine’s oil pan, are in the sculptures.

Some of the scrap comes from folks who stop to admire the work and later return with donations from their own scrap heap, fodder for future aliens, spacecraft and mythical creatures. Gather up what you have and bring it to him. Ken welcomes visitors to the gallery, located in his front yard at 1110 Ridge Ave., New Cumberland. Parking at the residence can be a problem, so you may need to park on a side street and walk to the scrapyard gallery.

 “A lot of people tell me they like it,” Ken says. “And that’s what keeps me going.”

A longer version of this story appears in the winter 2020 Goldenseal Magazine