We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Mitch Hoffman. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Mitch below.

Mitch, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today We’d love to hear about a project that you’ve worked on that’s meant a lot to you.

At Model Metal, myself & my shop partner Katy McClure love to do public art project & work with children. We firmly believe that art is for the people, and not to be hoarded in the houses of the well-off. Katy has a background in public education, and we have worked with a few different groups of students around Colorado to explain our artistic methods and processes, and work with the students (usually middle schoolers) to create upcycled scrap metal art and kinetic sculptures. We have also created a group of kinetic installation sculptures for a pre-school in Denver. To inspire children to create, especially in sustainable ways, is a driving passion of ours. We volunteer our time and efforts for these initiatives, and often take a pay cut in order to create public art, vs a private sector contract.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

Mitch Hoffman, Katy McClure & Beck Hargrove are Model Metal. With more than 40 years of combined experience with design and fabrication, they are prepared to create whatever you desire. They have built numerous high-end corporate, residential, and public art projects; past clients include Thompson Hotels, the City of Lone Tree, and the RiNo Arts District.

Mitch is passionate about using discarded scrap metal, especially bicycles, and has recently focused on interactive kinetic sculptures. Katy is an expert at using traditional forming and forging techniques to create organic shapes from hard, industrial steel sheeting, and uses advanced programming to model and render dynamic shapes that can be precisely machined using our CNC plasma cutting table.

Mitch has a background in Computer Science, Katy in Public Education, and Beck in Automotive Maintenance. With their diverse skill sets and experience, they bring a unique and bespoke perspective to any metal project. Raw steel, aluminum, stainless, titatium, niobium, copper, brass, anything metal, we do it all.

Model Metal creates large-scale public art and propane powered installation art for events such as Burning Man and Apogaea in Colorado. We do all elements of the process from concepts to designs & renderings, load calculations, fabrication, and installation. We also specialize in CNC cut steel signs for businesses and residences.

Model Metal was founded by Mitch Hoffman and David Brann. David was a rare genius, a savant who could seemingly learn and do anything. David tragically passed away in early 2024, but his partner Katy McClure and Mitch continued on, making art to carry on his legacy.

Do you think there is something that non-creatives might struggle to understand about your journey as a creative? Maybe you can shed some light?

I approached the arts from a roundabout way. I was always creative and interested in the arts, but never wanted to be a full-time “struggling” artist. I took my parents’ advice and studied something “marketable” and started doing welding as a hobby in my mid-20s. Eventually, my hobby became my side hustle, then my business, and my job became the side hustle.

My girlfriend is a therapist, and refers to it as “creativity with a lowercase c”. Everyone should have a creative outlet, and I think people should approach art without the expectation of making it a career. The monetization of creativity via encouraging everyone to sell their craft on etsy gives people unrealistic expectations, and floods the art market with things that should just be done for their own pleasure or as gifts for friends.

Finding a niche in the arts is the goal; having business skills and acumen will help your artistic career far more than expensive art school classes. Building your own style and business plan organically will allow you to achieve success (but it is work!). Talking to people & networking is the best way to expand, meet clients and other artists, and get to where you want to be.

What can society do to ensure an environment that’s helpful to artists and creatives?

I volunteer for multiple arts non-profit organizations, and I see this system as being vital to the proliferation of arts in society. Whatever your thoughts on capitalism, in America we are stuck with it, and it’s better to play the game then rebel against it. Non-profit donations to artists, workspaces, and art events do a ton to support creatives in your local community, with the added bonus of keeping the money out of the government’s tax coffers.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.model-metal.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/modelmetalfab
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/modelmetaldenver/