Gustavo Gonzalez Franco is a native of Juanacatlan, Jalisco, Mexico and has lived in the United States for twenty years.

As a child, he was inspired by watching his father weave leaves into baskets and sombreros.  He first starting doing metal sculpture while working at a recycling factory in Mexico, eventually selling his work in local stores and markets.

He's lived in the Augusta area about six years. Many people driving by his house on South Belair Road notice the life-size green metal alligator at the edge of the driveway. Gonzalez Franco creates art in his outdoor workshop, using uses tin snips to cut the material and an ax to give it dimension.  Smaller items, such as flowers and bumble bees, may take several weeks to months but the larger ones, like the dragon, the alligator & the life-size Don Quixote, take much longer to complete. The dragon took more than a year to finish, including a "fire-breathing" propane tank.

For more information on Gonzalez Franco's work, see his Facebook page.