Learning to weld in a sweltering machinery shed, Tom Pall started to notice birds' beaks, emu talons and the faces of cows appearing all around him.
Pall, who was training as a boilermaker, was envisioning the animals' forms in bundles of scrap metal propped up on the walls.
So as he honed his trade tucked away among the tractors and headers on his Goondiwindi farm in Queensland's southwest, he also became a budding metal artist.
Raising four young daughters two decades on, Pall spends his days in his home workshop sculpting everything from busts to human brains with jelly fish tentacles.
A work depicting a towering inverted pyramid being carried by a bee, titled The Weight of Consciousness, will be on display at Swell Sculpture Festival on Currumbin Beach from September 11.
"We humans like to think we're pretty special after a couple of hundred billion years of evolution," Pall told AAP of the work.
"What we think separates us from the rest of the animals on the planet is our consciousness or knowledge of our mortality.
"But with that consciousness, there's a great weight of responsibility ... more is better and we're constantly in search of something."
The choice of a bee to carry the heavy symbol of consciousness was a considered one, given the tiny insects' work is key to human existence.
Bees, as far as we know, don't think about tomorrow and aren't aware of their own short lifespans, Pall said.
"The bee ... just gets on with it.
"So it's just effortlessly carrying the weight of consciousness."
The Swell festival, which is marking its 24th exhibition, will feature the works of more than 100 artists from around Australia for 10 days.
Swell aims to give everyone the opportunity to experience art for free and at their leisure, as the sculptures become part of the sweeping coastal landscape.
Another Goondiwindi artist, farmer Angus Wilson, will have his three-metre tall sculpture Medusa on display.
Medusa came alive from a busted water pipe, scrap metal and discarded cables.
Wilson has devoted much of his life to public art, creating a sculpture trail on his property just outside the bustling border town.
There, a nine-metre table and chairs loom over life-size sculptures of livestock, along with his take on the nation's coat of arms and imposing heads in the style of the Easter Island stone figures.
The state's governor Jeannette Young visited in March, dwarfed like Alice in Wonderland by the table and chairs.
Wilson and his wife Sandie also led a movement to place art around the town of 6000.
"It makes a town more liveable," he said.
"With more art around, it gives a happier feel and something to look at rather than just a tree or a building."
