Ozarks artist Bob Parker creates art from old aluminum canoes using a torch to cut animals and scenes found on Missouri rivers. Nathan Papes, NPAPES@NEWS-LEADER.COM
RAYMONDVILLE — It wasn't a blank canvas that inspired artist Bob Parker.
It was the dented 41-year-old aluminum canoe in his back yard that beckoned.
"It's an old canoe I got from Montgomery Ward in Kansas when I was 20," recalls Parker, 61. "One day the wind picked up out here and smashed it into a tree. I had an idea I could cut pieces out of the back of it and turn it into something.