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Arthur Dial (b.1930)
Arthur Dial was born in rural Alabama where he spent the majority of his life. He held a thirty-seven year career at a company called U.S. Pipe, or as the local community called it, "the Pipe Shop," which influenced many of his artistic choices of material and methods of fabrication. He was inspired by the artistry of his older brother, Thornton Dial, Sr., as well as many other members of his community, and began fabricating various figures including biblical characters and animals out of the materials familiar to him from his job. His work, as he stated, is "a record of what went by," in that his concepts are not meant to encompass archetypal ideas or overarching philosophies, but rather his personal identity as an artist, what's important to him, and his societal context. He has been steadily working on his art since his retirement in the mid-1990s.