Zooming by at 45 mph, the sculptures that line the edge of David McGraw’s River Road property across from Sunset Beach in Forestville look like colorful totems.

Up close, however, the works are much more complex.

The multimedia pieces incorporate reused and recycled elements to tell one-of-a-kind stories about the 132-acre ranch McGraw owns in the Russian River Valley. One incorporates an old furnace, another the top of a wood-chipper. A third features the chassis of an old truck. A fourth — perhaps the most eye-catching of them all — comprises two rusted metal rectangles, suspended by purple-painted steel.

McGraw, 65, is the artist behind all this work. Over the last five years he erected nearly two dozen pieces in an old apple orchard and on other parts of his land visible from River Road. The pieces have names, but there’s no singular unifying theme.

As McGraw puts it, they just exist.

“To me the pieces are musical, they evoke nature, they represent living forms, and they bring together architecture and engineering,” he said. “I’m not trying to make a statement with this work. I like creating it from materials that have history. I like creating it and seeing what happens.”

With such a broad artist statement, it’s no wonder McGraw’s work delivers a sense of mystery — many are familiar with it, most have no clue what it is or why it’s there