Wayne is an artist, sculptor, and Professor Emeritus of the Art Department at the University of Minnesota. His work in cast bronze, cast iron, Tama-hagane steel, and Wootz steel has been exhibited regionally, nationally, and internationally in 30 one-person exhibitions and more than 340 group exhibitions. A life-long creative research investigation and practice of ancient and ethnic metal casting technologies, (including Meso-American, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Indian, and Western African methodologies) led him to Japan in 1999, where he studied the Tatara, a method of smelting iron ore into high carbon steel.  Since that time he has been making steel from Minnesota magnetite iron ore using both traditional and hybrid methods.