On the eastern edge of South Dakota, only 14 miles from the Minnesota state-line, lies Bushnell. This small town, which slid quietly into the new milennium without traffic lights or even a police station, has become home to a group of unique individuals: artists from diverse backgrounds producing an equally diverse array of fine and performing arts.

resident Dave Huebner calls Bushnell a "hideout" for artists because of its assorted potters, sculptors, musicians, and dancers. This tiny enclave east of Brookings, South Dakota, drew Huebner to the area in 1977 after a military career. Once there, he established Dakota Stoneware. Since several artiss, including Eric Wenger, the Muslim American artist and sculptor, have joined him here.

Wenger, who originally moved to Bushnell as a historical blacksmith, was introduced to Islam a few years after settling down and later took shahadah. During the course of his spiritual journey, his work has evolved from image-based sculpture, to eighteenth century reproduction ironwork, to a three-dimensional exploration of Islamic calligraphy.

Wenger states that since reverting to Islam, he has been challenged by Islam's restrictions on images. In fact, he has withdrawn many of the works he did before declaring his faith. He piled those that violated these restrictions in his backyard, and destroyed them while his family looked on in dismay. Wenger explained that his action was based on a newunderstand of Islamic guidelines and of the punishment awaiting those who create images.

After months of esxperimentation, Wenger developed his most recent calligraphic work using sheets of steel. "This is a new way of shaping metal that I've never done before," explains Wenger. The work, a merging of Wester abstract art and Arabic calligraphy, is like nothing found in the United States. Sometimes the individual Arabic letters are easily recognized, as in his work, "Ya Rab," while others assume a more abstract form, as in "Ya Rab2." Wenger is inspired by Qur'anic recitation. When he hears a phrase that has a meaning he likes, he often asks someone to write in in Arabic. Exlaining that he has no training in Arabic writing, he says: "I just see pretty forms; I don't really see letters." During this phase, Wenger has worked with orged steel that he prdcued on the blacksmith's forge in his shop. However, this work did not satisfy his desire to be challenged artistically.

This began a new phase of his work, one in which he challeged himself to define sculpture and metalwork. Over a few months, Wenger's work slowly changed again to that of experimenting with the Arabic language. Says Wenger: "I had been working with wall reliefs for a long time, and now I am doing three-dimensional sculpture." His current work allows him to "return to 3-D designing and thinking." The challenge required to create 3-dimensional Arabic calligraphy in a form that flows and is at the same time is attractive to the ey has given Wenger his sought-for challenge.

Wenger also works with copper, brass, and bronze. He explains that steel has allowed hi to experiment more htan with nonferrous metals.

When asked how Muslims receive him and his work, Wenger said that Muslim professionals and university students often seem to think they need to sugarcoat his blacksmithing and welder occupation when inroducing him to other, to make it sound more glamorous and respectful. He finds this attitude one that the Ummah can live without.