The Life and Times of Timeless Sculptures
Born in 1959, Matthew Welter won a neighborhood mud-ball-making contest at five years old and by 7 he was allowed his own pocket knife! His father, Paul, the cabinet maker, watched curiously as the lad modeled freight trains and stage coaches out of his cabinet scraps. His mother, ever the hobbiest/artist, Patricia hired him to make dollhouse furniture!
Both were his first and greatest teachers.
Matthew spent his teens in the mountains of California, just west of Lake Tahoe. The little logging town of Camino offered a young man either woods or orchards. But the logs ended up wooden people and the apples, shriveled old people’s faces. So at 13 the budding artist asked “The “Legendary” Chip Fynn, of nearby Pollock Pines, for an apprenticeship. “Grab a broom” was the notorious bastard’s response. Chip was of the first generation to carve with chainsaws. He used chisels to refine the wood, pranks and sharp words to refine the apprentices. He called his business the “Sawdust Gallery”
Welter was entrusted with his first commission, from a wealthy neighbor at 14 and by 16, he had rented his own studio in a quaint, roadside shopping village. His mother had to drive him to “The Wooden People Shoppe“ after school! As they became available he added power tools to the arsenal, and a local TV reporter dubbed it “power sculpting”.
At 18 and itching with youthful pride, Matthew left home and floundered until ending up at Chip Fyn’s door, who put him to work of course, while he worked in Chip’s studio.
And there, among the sawdust and paint Matthew Welter met perhaps his greatest mentor, an ancient woman (56 at least!) Her name was White Cloud and she mesmerized everyone with her large, cosmic/middle-earth paintings.
By 19, Matthew decided to follow a calling to travel in style…hitchhiking, hopping freight trains… and riding motorcycles. He whittled knickknacks and pipes for food, rides, and places to stay. Traveling across the southwest, the burley mountain boy turned desert rat carried in his pack a hatchet, chisels—and a chainsaw! He learned from road characters, a bum named Moses, a crazy alcoholic/Sage Indian named Billy and a southern gentleman named Jerry Strauss, the oil well driller who purchased a rocking chair, carved from a black walnut stump. Jerry also awarded him a fat commission for $20,000! (The kid decided he was important enough now to wear underwear, purchasing an entire pack) It was to be a life-size rendition of the Lord‘s Supper, fashioned as a serving table and Jerry was to become a lifelong mentor.
The down payment bought him an enduro motorcycle and Welter had blisters on his butt
by the time he arrived in Pollock Pines to rent Chip’s, by now unused studio…where he was arrested for nude sculpting out front of the studio! That’s right, on a dare from Chips son, who initiated the audacious display. The local newspaper recorded his words to the cops “I am responding to God’s law”, gesturing to an opened book of Michelangelo’s collected works. The cops and the paper we’re unimpressed, as were the artist’s parents.
After 10 days in jail, Chip merrily evicted him
(though their fondness and friendship would last until the lovable bastard’s death, in 2007)
Dylan absconded to Folsom, California…10 ton cross-section of a redwood tree stump in tow… He rented a house nearby and under the tutelage of the grand, “Deno and Rebecca Trotta“ an artist couple under siege for there spectacular/kookie, never ending project of a house.
There, the stubborn artist was hauled before the City Council, following complaints from neighbors about his chainsaw noise. The city issued a Cease and Desist Order on the gigantic-tree-stump-of-a-project, citing code violations. Of course.
So ‘Ol Jerry, ever the faithful supporter, came with freshly purchased truck and trailer to whisk away the work in progress, along with “Dylan‘s” ass (yep, by now he went by Dylan and yep, another mentor) to the urban cowboy’s New Mexico Ranch. There he worked on the Lord‘s Supper, in a decommissioned airplane hanger for two years until the project ended prematurely, with his client’s divorce.
Jerry’s outraged wife paid to have the half finished masterpiece trucked back to California.
Returning home, Matt found the old shopping center abandoned and set up shop there, where he assembled an art gallery and studio while he began a batch of sculptures as support. Among them were 2, ultimately to become known as The Guardians of Liberty…
When the property sold, the young artist how to find new digs, this time in nearby Placerville, California, on a peacock ranch. While there he discovered the marketplace at Lake Tahoe, who is wealthy homeowners loved his work.
At age 30 Welter married a university-trained artist, a painter who became his carving apprentice/art teacher and helped develop the office and gallery, while Matt ran the studio, just beyond glass show-windows, where tourists watched with fascination.
That studio/gallery was by then called Timeless Sculptures and it became ground central for a thriving apprenticeship program, not to mention a spirited battle against small town corruption that Welter waged via a homespun newspaper, “Call to Excellence“, printed on his very own, and first color copier in the neighborhood.
This tendency to buck the system contributed to his ousting from the town at 40, after the sale of his rented building and a subsequent tripling of the rent.
Welter landed in Nevada’s capital, the nearby high desert, Carson City, attended by some dozen apprentices but without his wife; the marriage having dissolved in all the commotion.
There, at a highly visible intersection, the art gallery was recast as a sculpture garden for the display of his works, which were becoming ever larger… Timeless Sculptures grew, along with its apprenticeship program, when on 9/11, 2001 the artist and a handful of apprentices vowed to take on the theme of liberty as his life‘s work. The apprentices eventually filtered away but his self chosen mission did not.
In 2007, Welter was assigned his artist pseudonym, “Timeless“, by the burning community, otherwise known as Burning Man. For the next decade, Timeless created monuments in the theme of liberty, it’s extreme antiquity and divine promise, a collection titled Liberty (R)evolution, which called for an all new art form Timeless called “Fire Inside”.
Welter continued in Nevada for two decades before that intersection property was sold, forcing another move, this time to California’s gold country, Nevada City, to be near one of his own mentors, Todd Andrews, who introduced him to a process called “wax to bronze“, where table-sized sculptures in wax become towering monuments in bronze, with the help of a foundry. So much the better at a time when most people are retiring Timeless good now continue his monuments presumably until death. There Liberty (R)evolution and Timeless Sculptures thrive today, as the artist follows his drive to make ever bigger liberty-based monuments, now in bronze.
Timeless feels everything in his past was only practice for what is yet to come…
ARTIST BIOS
Matthew "Timeless" Welter
Matthew "Timeless" Welter is a visionary sculptor and artist renowned for his large-scale, transformative installations that explore the realms of freedom, liberty, and the human experience. Untainted by an academic art education, his works spring straight from the creative pool.
With a career spanning over five decades, Timeless’ artistry has graced the homes and grounds of many prominent collectors as well as the pivotal Burning Man events and related exhibitions.
Amidst the looming presence of the progressive monolith, where conformity stifles genuine expression, emerges a figure carved from the very essence of defiance: Matthew “Timeless” Welter.
— Peter Serafine
Writer, podcaster, radio personality, libertylighthouse.com
Timeless’ artistic philosophy transcends the boundaries of time and space, inviting viewers to immerse themselves in the present. His iconic sculptures often center on liberty and have become symbols of hope, unity, and the indestructible human spirit.
Through his work, Timeless continues to push the boundaries, inspiring a new generation of creatives and leaving an indelible mark on the world.
— Victor Llugano: curator, appraiser, art critic and art retailer
Joseph Stanton
Artist, Builder, and Cultural Visionary
For over a decade, Joseph Stanton has apprenticed and collaborated with Timeless Sculptures, learning the alchemy of wood, fire, and imagination. What began as a humble chapter — living in a camper tucked behind the studio — became a ten-year odyssey of creation, mentorship, and monumental art.
Over the years, Joseph has helped bring countless visions to life, leading large-scale installations at Burning Man and coordinating public art displays that invite wonder into everyday spaces. Alongside his work in the field and studio, Joseph also tends to the digital side of Timeless Sculptures, helping craft and manage the website to share with the world, the timeless vision, evolving creations and creative vision.
As an independent artist known as MonsterStanton, Joseph explores the living spirit of art — how creativity connects cultures, kindles wonder, and builds bridges across the globe. His journey is one of growth, gratitude and grit — carving his story one sculpture, one spark, and one connection at a time.