Industrial expo celebrates convergence of trades and art

A scrap metal flower by Joanna Guthrie at the Messer Canada Expo in Edmonton on April 30, 2026. (Dave Mitchell/CTV News Edmonton)

A tradeshow connected welders, fabricators and other users of industrial gas to vocational innovations on Thursday.

Journeyman B-pressure welder turned multi-media artist Joanne Guthrie was at the annual Messer Canada 2026 Expo, held at the River Cree Resort and Casino, as a prime example of the convergence of skilled tradeswork and art.

The St. Albert-based sculptor worked in the welding industry for two decades before being called to more artistic pursuits.

“I just felt like I wasn’t pursuing my destiny …. And (now) every day, I wake up happy,” she said Wednesday.

She now works with salvaged steel, foraged pigments, handmade paper and charcoal, bringing new life to often-scrapped materials.

“I love making things that are abstract, like trying to create wind, trying to create fire, right out of metal. Making metal organic, making it flow … these are just pieces of metal scraps, but once you put them together, they’re like puzzle pieces.”

But her passion for the arts was forged, pretty literally, in fire. Her work would not exist, she says, without her detailed background knowledge of braze, acetylene braze or Tungsten Inert Gas (TIG) welding .

And to be surrounded by peers at the Messer Expo who knew what she was looking for in terms of materials, she said, was incredibly helpful.

A number of artists and workers – like familiar name TheeUpcycler, who crafts intricate sculptures out of scrap metal – were showing off what they could do with upgraded tools.

Guthrie’s next project is a partnership with the Edmonton and Area Land Trust, which will collect invasive plants and barbed fencing wire from natural areas for her for a feature exhibit.

“Let’s say you have this beautiful swamp land, you donate it to the Edmonton and Area Land Trust, and they take care of it … they put it back to the way it was,” Guthrie explained.

The Messer Canada Expo is held in a different city across the country each year.

Messer Canada operates two specialty gas plants in Edmonton and Whitby, Ont.

With files from CTV News Edmonton’s Dave Mitchell