Today we’d like to introduce you to Michael Beitz.
Michael, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
I grew up in rural New York State in the town of Attica. I lived just down the street from the famous Attica prison, where the 1972 riots took place. My father was a prison guard there for 38 years and my mother stayed at home doing odd jobs and crafts. There wasn’t much around in terms of the arts, but when my mother noticed that I liked to draw, she would always buy me drawing supplies. Around the age of sixteen, while in art class, I learned about Maria Martinez, the Navaho potter, and became very interested in her process. I started digging my own clay and Pitt firing small sculptures in my backyard. With the help of my mother and my high school art teacher, Patti Ryan, I was able to apply to art school and attended Munson Williams Proctor Institute of Art, which has since become Pratt. It was there I became deeply invested in ceramics and sculpture. That experience was the best in my life and all the teachers were inspiring to me. It was only a two-year program, so I transferred to Alfred University, New York State, College of Ceramics, to complete my BFA Degree.
While there, I met Tom Lacagnina, who was a great influence on me. He recommended me for a job with the well-known furniture craftsman Wendell Castle, who I worked with for several years after graduating from Alfred University. After working for a while with Wendell, I moved to Brooklyn, NY and got a job with BDDW, a very interesting design company with a focus on furniture. I was still thinking of myself as a sculptor who was a furniture maker by day. I had never incorporated furniture into my own creative practice until years later, when I was in grad school at the University at Buffalo, NY. There were a few things happening in my world that brought me to the point of making my first furniture piece, which was titled “knot”, and consisted of a 30 ft. long sofa that I had upholstered and tied into a knot. First, I was breaking up with my girlfriend of many years and I was sick about it. Also, I was visiting many abandoned homes in the city of Buffalo and gaining an understanding of the relationship between design and poverty. I was also seeing many craftspeople and skilled laborers losing their jobs in the recession.
All of these factors lead me to think about “canceling” the objects that provide the elements of comfort within the home and house, so I started by creating a sofa and tying it into a knot. I wanted to use the skills I had spent years learning and perfecting, but for my own work instead of other artists. I had this small thought lingering in my head,” what would I make if I were the designer?” And so this is the beginning of all the furniture related work I have made. I was interested in the desire for these domestic objects and also that furniture objects have a high level of importance in the home. I like thinking about the abstract ideas created by design and architecture, the minimal modern aesthetic that is so attractive but seldom represents the lives of the inhabitants. My work is an attempt to play with design formally and conceptually as art. I want to rethink what types of objects we truly would like to live with and enjoy and why. How do certain objects make us feel and how do we adjust our environments to make ourselves feel better without alienating ourselves?
Has it been a smooth road?
I have had a lot of great opportunities and have met wonderful people who have helped me tremendously. I have a lot of the same struggles as other artists, such as finding studio space and support for my work. The real challenges are that of the work itself, to have clarity and work in a way that is honest and true to my vision.
We’d love to hear more about your art.
I do some commission work and public art projects that mainly focus on combining elements of sculpture and furniture design. I am interested in making interactive designs in public spaces because I’m critical of how these spaces operate and how people are influenced by civic design and urban planning. I try to contribute in my small way to making a more hospitable environment. My projects are mostly made with exterior woods and sometimes metals. I have two table sculptures in Boulder, two at UNC Greeley and one community did project in Jamestown, CO. There are several other pieces scattered throughout the USA and a few abroad, in Kosovo, China, Hong Kong, and Russia.
Is our city a good place to do what you do?
I do think it is a great city to work in. I have met great people here and I hope to keep my studio and work here for many years. It is a hard place to find space, but we have to find ways around it and work together to share space and resources.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.michaelbeitz.com
- Phone: 5859431236
- Email: [email protected]
- Instagram: www.instagram.com/michael_beitz
- Twitter: @michaelbeitz_
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