Barbed wire: “If you cross it, it will cut you; if you respect it, it will protect you.” This statement by welding artist Kathleen Martell sums up what she calls the power of feminine fire. It is this power with which she imbues her metal sculptures.
It wasn’t until Martell was 53 that she discovered a talent for art she had believed to be nonexistent. “All of my five (older) sisters and my mother are very artistic,” she said. “My oldest sister is an educated, trained, published interior designer. My sisters are artists, painters, musicians, or singers.” Martell says she got into choir in high school solely because of her last name—the choir director assumed she, too, was a singer. “But I couldn’t sing, I had no artistic anything.”
In 2022, Martell went on a garden tour and met Wheat Ridge resident Bobbi Rubingh, welder who inspired her to take a welding class. “Right place, right time,” Martell said. “Like it was just predestined that I went to that garden show and met Bobbi and signed up for a class. Bobbi was my inspiration. I had found my art.
“My favorite things to make are warriors. My love for warriors comes from my very first class at Ghost Ranch in Abiquiu, New Mexico. I have taken three week-long workshops at Ghost Ranch.” Connie Burkhart, an instructor there, became Martell’s main mentor. “Connie makes warrior figurines that are two feet tall. She taught us how to make them so that we learned different skills with different welds and with different materials.
“When I made my first warrior, I felt so empowered and confident. I was brand new to doing an art that actually felt like I could be good at, and I felt authentic. As I made my first warrior woman, it really became very personal, almost like a talisman of myself and my spirit. I made one for my mother that represented her. I made one for my father in honor of my stepmother who had recently passed.
“My plan is to make a living as an artist—not only selling art but also teaching. I’m doing commissioned warriors for people. I meet with them to get their life stories, maybe some colors or shapes or images. And then I design and create custom warriors for them. So that’s where I really hope to make the living.”
Martell has made warriors as small as a foot-and-a-half tall to five feet tall. “The smallest one is a garden stake—it’s on an old drill bit; and the tallest one I’ve made is a warrior with a big spiral head and a war chest plate; she has different weapons on both of her arms, and she is very powerful. I made it at Ghost Ranch.”
Martell’s back porch is her home studio—she doesn’t have proper ventilation to do any kind of welding indoors. She says that creating art is sometimes isolating when you’re in a studio by yourself. So, she maintains an area to create her welding projects at the Clear Creek Makerspace, where she is a metal shop captain and instructor.
“Being a metal shop captain at the Clear Creek maker space means that I am an expert in at least one area of the metal shop,” Martell said. “It also means that I volunteer a certain number of hours every month, teach classes, and oversee decisions for the metal shop with the two other captains. My area is oxy-acetylene welding. I’ll start teaching oxy-acetylene classes in February. I have really gotten involved with Makerspace. I love that there’s a place I can go and weld any day, any time.
In addition to her association with Makerspace, she is the current chair of the Cultural Commission in Wheat Ridge and is on the leadership committee for Wheat Ridge Creates. She is also a member of the Art Spot Co-op and the Foothills Art Center.
In 2023, Martell won the Colorado Parks and Recreation Association Community Service Award. “It was really amazing,” she said. “Wheat Ridge Parks and Rec nominated me, and of all the communities in Colorado for community service and volunteerism, I won. It was unexpected and so thoughtful and amazing to receive that recognition.”
Martell says her goals for 2025 are to get her classes on the calendar—and people in them!—at Makerspace; and to find more opportunities to show her work in art shows, to connect with a wider audience, and to do more commissioned work.
The warriors she makes are unique and specific to the person they’re for. “I use a lot of barbed wire in my work, because I think the barbed wire, especially welded, is the perfect metaphor of feminine fire.
“I would love more people to learn [welding]. When I’m at fairs and shows and markets, people are like, you’re a girl welder! I am. And it’s awesome.”
Follow Kathleen on Instagram: @kathleen_welds, or go to @ClearCreekMakerspace, to see the classes she’ll be teaching in February.
