PEA RIDGE — Pea Ridge artist Raymond Gibby is off on a new creative venture.

Gibby’s background lies in bronze casting. He casts and sells sculptures to buyers and galleries across the nation. Last December, he lost 10 years worth of hard work when a fire broke out in his foundry in Garfield.

Gibby moved to Arkansas four years ago from Utah and has been working as a full-time artist.

He recently teamed with Tim Costello to form Zingology Manufacturing, a Bentonville based company introducing fine art to the aftermarket accessories business by creating and manufacturing a hand sculpted and foundry cast differential cover made of aluminum.

“If you’ve ever seen a jacked up four-wheel drive, near the back axle, sort of the shape of a pumpkin,” Gibby said, describing where the differential is.

“It’s what drives the back wheels to go forward.”

Gibby says casting them in stainless steel and adding sculptured images adds to the strength as well as personalization of the vehicle.

They call it adding “zing.”

“We also cater to a crowd of four-wheel drivers called rock crawlers, they like to crawl over boulders (with their vehicle),” he said.

Gibby said his normal clientele “lost their retirement last year” in the downturn of the economy.

He still sells to larger entities - cities and schools - but is now looking at different avenues for his art and income.

“The foundry is fully functioning, we were able to repair the building. The only issue is just trying to make up for 10 years of lost molds,” Gibby said.

His new form of art can be seen on “Horsepower,” a show on the Spike network at 10:30 a.m. Saturday, April 17. The episode will feature the 1982 Chevrolet Camaro Berlinetta being restored for a soldier in the 101st Airborne being deployed to Iraq.

News, Pages 1 on 04/14/2010