Daily Inspiration: Meet Harrison Nealey

Today we’d like to introduce you to Harrison Nealey. 

Hi Harrison, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstories.
I was introduced to welding while working in a well-known mountain bike factory in Golden, CO, Yeti Cycles. I didn’t actually get to weld bikes there, but I was surrounded by the process and the sounds every day. One day I decided I needed a desk to do my studies for Community College, the rest was downhill from there… I began drawing furniture in my notebooks at school and once I learned CAD, I digitized them. 

It would be a few years before I got to produce another piece of furniture, but I had so many ideas churning in my head, I knew it was only a matter of time. My next piece was a table I built with a professional carpenter, Daniel Kucher, we combined laser-cut stainless steel and wood to create an abstracted piece of graffiti. After that, I was hooked. 

In general, my story arc is pretty choppy so I’ll leave this here. 

Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not, what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
No roads are ever smooth, that comes with age and experience. Even then, obstacles still arise… I have had many struggles. 

I would like to blame everything on ADHD, but I haven’t been diagnosed… I think one of the biggest struggles of mine is having too many ideas or other distractions that kept me from narrowing my path. Being an artist at heart makes every idea seem worthy of holding onto. 

Another one is being realistic and honest with myself regarding time estimated to complete a project. I work until a project is done only to realize I spent 2-3 times the labor I had planned for… It’s not always like that, but some timelines are easier to map out than others. 

Money is an obstacle for most people starting a business, I started building capital to purchase equipment by contracting signage installations with another artist friend of mine, Brian Greer. We built a variety of sign elements and furniture pieces for a decade together as Monolith Fabrication Studio. We never borrowed money from a bank or received any types of financial investments from anyone, although we did have free use of a garage that we used as our workshop for the majority of our projects. With that in mind, we frequently had the challenge of choosing to take home a paycheck or purchase equipment to expand capabilities or increase efficiency. Neither one of us went to school for an MBA, so our understanding of how to navigate business was never top-notch… 

Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
I create custom furniture for designers, residences, offices, and retail spaces. My main medium of choice is black steel and I commonly combine it with glass, hardwood, stone, or other metals. Because I use so much metal I’m primarily known as a welder, and between the different welding processes I favor TIG welding for my one-of-a-kind pieces, I may consider MIG welding to fabricate larger objects or to fulfill higher unit quantity orders. 

I actually don’t know what I’m known for, over the last few years I’ve become less outgoing and social… Probably because of covid, but social media, in general, makes my head hurt. If I’m being serious, I guess I’m just known for working with other well-known furniture designers and interior designers, I strive to keep my tolerances tight and stay true to the original vision. I frequently have opportunities to take creative liberty in designs, but I usually take my liberties through my attention to details. 

Hopefully, that reads ok… 

Can you tell us more about what you were like growing up?
As a young kid, I took everything apart, if I couldn’t find a screwdriver I’d use a butter knife, then I’d put it back together… I fixed a lot of broken things and gained a mechanical understanding first-hand. 

Growing up, my world revolved around my bike, I averaged 10-15 miles a day as a young teen. My first job was in a bike shop as a mechanic, and my dream was to compete in the Olympics in the mountain bike circuit in the early ’00s. I was designing rear suspension linkages on notebook paper… 

Visual arts, performative arts, and history were some of the cornerstones of my cultural upbringing, my family attended Juneteenth celebrations and arts festivals in Denver in the summers. When we travelled, we sought out museums, galleries, and shops. While living in Arizona, my dad founded a Buffalo Soldiers Museum, it was only around for a dozen years or so, but another organization formed the Buffalo Soldiers Museum that continues to exist to this day. 

My dad had me on computers since the mid ’80s, I was extremely fluent with Windows and adapted well to Mac in school. Word processing, graphic design, and slideshow presentations were where I shined, and as far as I know, I was the first kid to have access to a digital camera at my school, same with a CD burner… 

My mom was an elementary school teacher and had a variety of ways to help me study and recall information. 

Having a dad with a Ph.D. in Philosophy and a mom with a Master in childhood education, I was equally inspired and intimidated by their accomplishments, I understood the need for education to survive, but I also saw that working for a big corporation was not going to satisfy my creative interests. 

I’m pretty sure I’m an introvert, but I do enjoy my circle of friends. 

My current interests include camping and travelling, art shows and food… These are most enjoyed with my lovely wife and children. 

Contact Info:

• Email: hello@industrial-arts.co
• Website: industrial-arts.co
• Instagram: @industrialartsdenver
• Twitter: @1ndustrialarts
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCHPOUwnF0yOt3TQNh9u8mFQ
• Other: https://www.houzz.com/pro/industrial-arts/__public

Image Credits
David Lauer
Jess Blackwell
Blake Jackson
Skye Mitchell