The Des Moines Register

SCULPTURES, SNACKS A BIG HIT
By Janet Klockenga, Des Moines Register
Tuesday, September 29, 2009

Art enthusiasts, neighbors and the curious stopped by a blossoming sculpture park on the city’s south side Saturday to peruse the sculpture and check out work by neighborhood artists.
The first South Des Moines Sculpture Park Art Festival was organized by south-siders Phil Barber and Chuck Mettler.  It was a free festival with 12 booths featuring Des Moines artists affiliated with Metro Arts Alliance, as well as a musician, kids’ activities and free hot dogs and hamburgers for all.
The festival was held at the corner of McKinley Avenue and Southwest Eighth Street in a lot that Barber bought about two years ago.  The 50-foot-wide lot extends for two city blocks south from McKinley and is part of the old city trolley system.  Barber and Mettler installed some of their own pieces of art and opened the property as a sculpture park last year.
The men were happy with the steady stream of visitors on Saturday.  In fact, they said, people arrived about an hour before the art fair was scheduled to open.
“We’re trying to get this started as an annual thing,” Mettler said.  “We’d like to have an art festival every year for the Des Moines community—especially for the south side.  We’re hoping this will ignite enthusiasm for future festivals.”
“We did this for the people,” Barber said.  “This is our stimulus package.  We think it’s off to a pretty good start.”

Pretty Cool.  And fun.  Thanks Des Moines Register!

The chair was shown off perfectly in the German Pavilion setting, it is said that Royal visitors did not actually take advantage of this newly designed seating accommodations, but the chair quickly attained the reputation of being ” a design worthy of Kings”.

The frame was initially designed to be bolted together, but was redesigned in 1950 using stainless steel which allowed the frame to be formed in one seamless casting, giving it a more smoother appearance.  Bovine leather replaced the ivory colored pigskin which was used for the original chair.

The Barcelona chair was manufactured in the USA by Knoll since 1953. The chair is a classic design an still sales very well world wide. This classic accent chair remains time less in its design and function.

By Chuck Mettler
Furniture Artist, Fan of Art Chairs, Lover of the Barcelona

Chuck!

I wanted to send you this photo of me with my Christmas present.   Don’t I look smashing next to your chair?

It’s awesome, Chuck.  Thanks so much.  It’s everything you promised and more.  I love the Mona Lisa art chair, but I gotta admit, that the Van Gogh accent chair is my favorite.

I think you’ll love the story of Christmas.  After I opened it, we put it in about 20 different places in our house.  Does the art chair look better here?  Is it better as an accent chair there?  We finally ended up putting your chair in what has become our “art gallery” in our entry way because we figured the most people would see it there.

But then, only hours later, we had a bunch of folks over for a holiday feast.  ( I think one of the guests, by the way, is going to buy one of the accent chairs because they saw it and fell in love.)   Anyway, we were short of chairs for the meal so my sister ended up sitting with Van Gogh on your art chair.

I loved it.  You promised that it is functional art.  That it is both furniture and sculpture.   And before we had owned it for 12 hours that was proved true.  It couldn’t be more solid…but it’s absolutely beautiful.

Chuck…This might sound weird, but one of my favorite parts is that you signed the back of the accent chair.   The chair is special, but your John Hancock makes it all the better.

I’m a huge fan!

Thanks so much.

Brad Montgomery

Fan of Art Chairs, Fan of Chuck Mettler, Proud Owner of the Van Gogh Accent Chair

Thanks Brad.  Sit in Good Health!

— Chuck

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The Des Moines Register

CROWD COMES EARLY TO VIEW ART SCENE
Two men who created the visual attraction earn praise from their former teacher at Lincoln.
By Jared Strong, Des Moines Register
Tuesday, September 29, 2009

A first-time art festival brought about 800 people to the South Des Moines Sculpture Park on Sept. 19.
It also reunited two art students and a teacher who hadn’t seen each other for decades.
The art students were Phil Barber and Chuck Mettler, two longtime friends who created the sculpture park at the corner of Southwest Eighth Street and Southwest McKinley Avenue.
The art teacher was Donna Yeast, who retired nine years ago from Lincoln High School.  She remembered Barber for being the president of the school’s Dorian Art Club shortly after she began teaching at the school in 1968.
“It was an honorary art club that they don’t have anymore,” Yeast recalled last week.  “Students were picked from the quality of work and their attitude and behavior.”
Yeast said Barber “was a real character and really outgoing.  He seemed to have a really good following from the other students.”
She had heard of the sculpture park, which opened last year, but didn’t know that Barber and Mettler were the ones behind it until she read about this year’s festival.
“It was a nice art fair.  It’s an eye-catching place,” said Yeast, who also lives on the south side. “It’s really rewarding to see people follow along in the footsteps they started in high school.”
The chance meeting between students and teacher was an added bonus for a successful first time event, Barber said.
“It was really good, man.  Everybody had a blast,” he said.  “This was our trial run, and it went really, really well.”
Barber and Mettler plan to expand the festival next year to include 20 art vendors—they had a dozen this year—and more live music.  Joryn Brown, a 14-year-old blues guitarist who recorded his first original song nine years ago, played this year.
The festival was supposed to start and noon, but people began arriving about 100 a.m.  A steady stream came and went until about 4 p.m., Barber said.
Councilman Brian Meyer was among the attendees.
“It’s really, really cool stuff,” he said.  “They had a big turnout, and they want to make it even bigger next year. … I’ll do what I can to help.”

Thanks Des Moines. It was my pleasure.

Eames Chair | Furniture Art

That got me thinking about all kinds of chairs over history, about which more later. Closer to home, I found three chairs in the attic which my grandfather made for his family, probably in the the 20’s in a small town in Iowa. They were roughly made, but solid as a brick, had spoke backs, a curved board on top, and legs angling out a a slight angle, and braced by struts. My grandfather had no education, but he could make anything, and fix things from clocks and watches to a busted telegraph key. His chairs were not furniture art by a darn sight, but comfortable, well made and are still cherished by the family.

As new materials were invented, chairs began to be made out of all kinds of things. Once upon a time the artist was stuck with wood and basic metals, stuffing and material for the seat, and paint. Plywood was new. Bending it was new. Plastic could be molded and shaped into anything. Metals: steel, aluminum, iron, soft plastic, hard plastic, leathers in all colors and from all kinds of animals were now being used.

Savonarola Chair | Furniture Art

Often the trouble with high style furniture is that it is not comfortable. The Eames Chair has both, and that’s why it has been in continuous production since it introduction.
People buy art furniture for all kinds of reasons. High style appeals to the eye and makes a statement. It often is a conversation starter, just as it was back in they day when Savanarola was roaming Italy in the 1500’s.

And strangely, high style, contemporary furniture are can and does fit with other styles of furniture and furnishings.

Yours,
Chuck Mettler
Lover of Art Chairs, Furniture Artist, Fan of Eames and Savonrola

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In Chicago, there is a 40 story building with a Michael Jordan image 700 feet tall selling Nike basketballs. You can’t travel any where in the USA on the nation’s highways and not see hundreds of semi trucks with 40 foot graphics on their sides. Billboards on wheels. So I’ve looked at the common chair and said why not put large format classic art images on chairs and make them into furniture art.

In other words, I’ve created art chairs by “wrapping” them like a bus. My customers like the chairs, and my customers prefer the furniture art to having a bus in their living room.

They great conversation objects, they serve a function, and are durable. Classic art doesn’t always have to hang on the wall.  Now you can sit on these classic art chairs and discuss it at the same time with your friends.

Thanks for asking.

Would you like a chair with classic art? Go to the contact page.

Chuck Mettler
Chair Art Creator, Fan of Furniture Art, Lover of the Classics

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Help us make it better?  How can we improve our site?   Thanks for visiting.  We’re thrilled to have you.

Chuck Mettler
Cool Furniture Artist, Creator of Art Chairs, Proud Dad of a Web Site

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