Urban Art Pittsburgh Style

In The Studio

We have So much going on in the studio lately as many of the artists in residence here have been busy creating many new and exciting projects!

Jenifer Bechak has been working with our new oxy acetylene torches creating some beautiful bent metal work for a project she has been working to complete.










Olof Berner and James Sichak have been collaborating together for a cool project using some City Wood, salvage wood from industry and some driftwood recovered from our rivers. It's still early on in theis project, but you can see the great flow between these artists already.










Nate Lucas is working on a couple projects here as he works to complete a coffee table for one client, and a set of oars for another client.












James Sichak has been working to create some new jewelry items, preparing for the regional festivals season, and working on Urban Tree Forge projects in addition to his collaboration with Olof Berner.

I have had a couple projects going on myself in the studio. First I started working on a branch section from the Smithfield East end Cemetery sycamore tree and have been working this into what may be deemed my version of Bench 2009.















With my second project, I had another great opportunity to demonstrate with the Children's Museum for two days, and used the time to get things moving forward on the Moon River headboard sculpture after a full year of drying. I am hoping to complete this as 3 Rivers, a sculpture, in time to submit it for consideration for the Pittsburgh Tech Council's June 15 Minute Gallery show... submissions are due in two more days!!! I wonder if this would be considered suitable as public art?
Still lots to do to get this one ready! Better get back to this or I won't have anything to submit regardless of what it is!

My Cemetery Valentines... Allegheny style

A busy weekend
for the Forge

We had a great turnout this past Valentines weekend as a number of artisans showed their love for the trees of our urban forest by coming out for this endeavor. We spent the day in Allegheny Cemetery seeking and finding some amazing opportunities. Jonathan Shapiro came out this weekend looking for some fresh material for a new sculpture he wants to work on,Jason Boone and Julie came out to lend a hand and look for his next creative outburst.
Jen Bechak came in search of some interesting tree rings for another cache of Citywood for her series of metal infused furniture.

And Nate Lucas came out to help us with slabbing some beautiful maple slabs for a furniture project a client in another city requested, wanting us to utilize material from back home in Pittsburgh for their new home away from home.
The city trees showed up as well, providing us once again with the the characteristic beauty that are the trees of our beautiful urban forest of Pittsburgh. Thank you so much to the folks of Allegheny Cemetery for giving us the permission for recovering these wonderful pieces that are the legacy of our fair city.

Citywood and Tree Forge Happenings

Starting the new year off with a BANG!!!
We went looking for some beautiful wood in our fair city of Pittsburgh in January.. and did we hit it big! We harvested some beautiful maple slabs... and cubes!! in Lawrenceville and on the north side Lumberjack Tree service brothers Ben and Joe have helped us out by providing access to some wonderful oak logs for a local library project... Thanks again guys for supporting your local communities! We delivered some Citywood picture frames to Highmark... Hey, Thanks to Highmark too for supporting local sustainable business!!
Resident artist Jennifer Bechak had a great opening at the Brew House for an installation sculpture made with Citywood, and resident artist Olof Berner has pieces in a gallery in New Castle at the Bottlebrush Gallery and Shop. Check out Olof's blog for more on what he has been doing with Bernerworks, his own company. Great work Olof!!
More coming soon, as we have just been doing so much in the last couple weeks... stay tuned!

Art theft

Art Theft

Stolen Art

Sad news this week as we celebrate the Thanksgiving holiday. I had three significant works of art stolen as I delivered them to family in Millcreek, a suburb of Salt Lake City, Utah. I had just driven the works out to family from Pittsburgh, PA with my brother-in-law Doug Belnap... (Thanks Doug!) completing the cross-country trip in just 27 hours, arriving at the home of Steve and Maura Cantwell late Thanksgiving eve. I left the pieces in the vehicle overnight with the intention of unloading first thing in the morning. What we awoke to was a morning of loss and grief as we realized the car had been ransacked of all personal items. Our loss included two end tables/nightstands created exclusively for Maura and Steve Cantwell as well as a sculpture titled "Touched" for the family of my brother, Eric Metzler, who died two years ago.

The loss of "Touched" was the most devastating of the day. After hundreds of hours of work,I was bringing this to our family gathering so that my brothers and sisters could contribute and impart a little of each of themselves to this gift for Eric's family. "Touched" was carved from a section of a birch tree recovered from one of my brothers last jobs as Metz Tree Service before his passing two years ago November 1st. Eric was lost to us when the tree he was climbing fell with him tied into the tree's crown. I helped his sons Josh and Justin clean up some of his open jobs. We were able to complete and recover the birch section from one of these projects. The base of the sculpture starts in six sections representing each of the members of his family and diverges to represent how our actions touch other lives in ways we could never comprehend.


The other two casualties in this ordeal are a pair of original night stand end tables I made for my sister and her husband (Maura and Steve Cantwell). The stands are made from oak and sycamore from Pttsburgh, our hometown. The sycamore is from the Point Park University, where my sister attended, studying dance and theater. The oak tops are from an urban tree, a local white oak crotch. The remainder of the oak was salvaged from a local steel supplier. These pieces are also incomplete as I needed to be able to pack them flat for transport to be assembled when I arrived. The stands were packed as 4 sides, the top, and the floor, all as separate sections. The doors were not hung and the drawer fronts were also not attached to the drawers.

In addition to the irreplaceable sculpture and original end tables I also lost a camera I received as a gift from my dear friend and love of my life, Randie Snow; my collection of CDs; my sleeping bag; and a hand made quilt that "Touched" was wrapped in. I had just received the camera days before my departure... (a Canon A1000IS) upon which were stored the only pictures of the lost pieces in their latest stages of completion. The images here are all of earlier stages of construction of the works.
Local Salt Lake City television station KSL TV was gracious enough to report on our loss and inform viewers of the works in hopes that someone would return them. We give our thanks and gratitude to Sandra Yi for her time and efforts to aid in the recovery of these pieces.