Renowned Taylorsville sculptor Dan Toone doesn’t get his hands wet with sticky modeling clay when he does his thing.

The father of four and granddad to nine also has no time for a mallet and chisel, like the OG Renaissance man, Michelangelo.

Nope – Toone is more of a “One man’s junk is another man’s treasure” kind of guy.

“I grew up on a farm in Spokane,” Toone begins his story. “Every farm has a ‘resource pile’ somewhere. The rest of the world calls it a ‘junk pile;’ but on a farm, you reuse everything you can. As a boy, I grew to appreciate the unusual shapes of the metal in our resource pile. Certain pieces spoke to me. With a little work, I knew they could be transformed into art.”

A community college art class in Spokane nurtured Toone’s interest in transforming mangled metal into something eye-appealing. The art instructor loved a piece Toone completed with a crank that made six different parts of the sculpture move.

This was way back in the early 1970s – when Watergate was still just a DC hotel, not a political scandal. Now a half-century later, Toone has just completed his largest stainless-steel sculpture ever – for Farmington City, just over the border in south Davis County.

“I absolutely love Dan’s sculpture – and everyone I’ve spoken with who’s seen it does also,” Farmington Parks and Recreation Director Colby Thackeray said. “The sculpture is of a large tree, because that’s our city logo. Dan has been so great to work with all through this process. I laughed when I saw him in his long coat, goggles on, welding the huge pieces together. He reminded me of Doc in ‘Back to the Future.’ This is only our second piece of significant public art in Farmington – and we are thrilled to have it.”

Just to fill in some of that half century – from community college in eastern Washington to Doc Brown and his flux capacitor – Toone met his wife of 50+ years, Janean, in his state… but she was from Utah. So, guess where they live now?

Toone learned welding on the job, as a young man starting a family. He went on to non-welding jobs, but never stopped tinkering with mangled metal entirely. Taylorsville is the only place the Toones have ever lived, in Utah. They’ve been in their current home since they had it built in 1982. They added a large, second building 18 years later. 

“We built a 40-by-60-foot workshop next to our home in 2000,” he said. “If I had 3-times that much space, I could have more fun with more tools; but my space is fine. I started to get serious about art in 2007. We hosted an open house for friends and family, where I had 15 art pieces to show them. Not long after that, Janean and I began traveling to farmers markets and art festivals to show pieces.” 

Toone first placed one of his sculptures in an official art gallery in 2009. He’s now sold pieces out of eight different galleries in Salt Lake, Park City and some neighboring states. He’s not sure where all his sculptures are now – but he knows they range from Canada to Florida.

Taylorsville City tapped into Toone’s artistic expertise from the very moment the notion of Centennial Plaza was conceived. As the open space south of city hall was being filled with a large, outdoor stage… picnic tables and benches… sidewalks and sod… city officials also wanted their new public space populated with art. They wanted all-weather, metal sculptures – Toone’s wheelhouse.

“I am the city’s Plaza+ Art Program Coordinator and I’ve had at least one of my pieces rotate through on display in Centennial Plaza every year,” Toone said. “My son Joshua has also had a piece in the plaza each year. He and I are not a part of the art selection committee; obviously, that wouldn’t be fair. We’re both proud to have had pieces selected each year.”

The Plaza+ Art display outside city hall began modestly four years ago, with a half dozen sculptures situated throughout Centennial Plaza. This summer there will be about two dozen of them.

The very popular Starry Nights @the Plaza concert and event series will launch its fifth season, Friday, May 15. It continues weekly – with food trucks, live music and sculptures everywhere you turn – through the last Friday of September. That’s when the next crop of sculptures will be unveiled for the 2026-27 season.

To make the link from much smaller Toone pieces appearing in Centennial Plaza each year… to his massive 34-foot stainless steel tree in Farmington’s new, 11-acre North Cottonwood Commons (550 Innovator Dr.) you need to meet Brent Potter, a landscape architect with Sandy-based blū line designs.

“I first met Dan when he did some custom metal fabrication work for blū line designs on a residential project in Riverton,” Potter said. “I knew the quality of his art and how easy he is to work with. When Farmington officials said they wanted a large public art piece – a tree sculpture to match their city logo – I recommended Dan Toone to them.”

Toone made a small model to share his vision with the Farmington folks. He also quoted them a price.

“It is honestly hard for me to fathom what a great deal Farmington got,” Potter continued. “An all-stainless steel public art piece that size? It was a steal. In fact, I am the White City Community Council Chair and we’re now discussing public art for our community. When the time comes, Dan will be our first call.”

“Our total budget for North Cottonwood Commons – which includes pickle- and basketball courts, obstacle courses, a splash pad and the tallest playground equipment, with the two tallest slides, in northern Utah – was $14.5 million,” Thackeray said. “Dan’s tree sculpture part of the project was $400,000.”

“That was the total cost of everything,” Toone said. “That includes about $100,000 in materials, six to eight months of work – sometimes as many as four of us working on it. That amount also included lighting the tree, which I was not involved in. There was sand blasting and crane rentals. I think Farmington got a pretty good deal.”

Thackeray and other Farmington officials also recently toured Centennial Plaza in Taylorsville to see how the city has incorporated art in their public space. Mayor Kristie Overson was their tour guide.

“I’ve heard from people from many different cities who have walked Centennial Plaza to get ideas of how they might display art the way we do,” Overson said. “But this was the first time we were formally approached by a city for a tour. We told them all about our Plaza+ Art program… about Starry Nights @the Plaza… our process for selecting the sculptures we display… the evening art discussions we host a couple of times each year. They wanted to know all the mechanics of how we make it work.”

Meantime, Toone says the Farmington tree project has stirred his interest in possibly doing more public art. 

“I have to be creative; I have to use my hands; it’s fulfilling to me,” Toone concluded. “I enjoy helping with Centennial Plaza. Every year we have new artists who say it’s the best setting they’ve ever had for one of their pieces. And if another offer came along – maybe to create something even bigger than the Farmington tree – I’d love to take it on.”