For metal sculptor Jon Koehler, a graduate of Point Loma High School, it is about the art, not about the money.
“I’m doing it because it’s what I love to do, and I’m very fortunate I can do it at home, in this environment, with good people,” Koehler said. “It’s definitely a very passionate hobby.”
The majority of his work is by commission, and he likes to collaborate with buyers who have a specific concept in mind.
“I’ve done so many specialty items for people around this area,” Koehler said. “There’s no store in the world they can go in and buy it. It’s very custom; it’s very much created from who they are and what they desire.”
In 2001, Koehler tapped into the artistic side of metalworking, though he has been a metal fabricator and metal smith since he was a child.
“I grew up in my dad’s boatyard,” he said. “I probably learned welding at 10 years old and just was drawn to it.” According to Koehler, nobody told him, “You have to do this or if you do this you’ll make money.” He said that was not the focus.
If more than 20 years of working with metal makes him an expert, Koehler is not formally trained but learned through experience and from some of the best teachers and mentors.
A year ago, Koehler began collaborating with painter-designer-illustrator Neil Shigly, who teaches drawing and illustration at San Diego State University.
As a team they create innovative and stirring pieces.
Transporting Koehler’s pieces takes a team of men, a flatbed semi, various forklifts and sometimes even a crane.
He has been receiving recognition throughout the United States, and one of his works, “Ballenas,” a 25-foot kinetic sculpture of migrating whales constructed of stainless steel, can currently been seen Downtown at the Embarcadero. It is part of the Urban Tree Project sponsored by the Port of San Diego.
The port leases the artist’s work for a year and returns it at the end of the duration.
“I’ve been active in that for the last four years,” Koehler said, “and I think one or two other artists only were selected all four times, so that’s a revolving exhibit.”
Koehler said anything can be a source of inspiration, but he finds when he is not looking for it that is when he is most inspired.
“As I’m working in my shop doing practical things, I’ll find pieces of metal that have shapes that inspire me,” he said. “Something I’ll see somewhere in my travels or just my journey of life,” Koehler said. “It comes back to me in my sleep when I just see it growing into something.”
He said nature encompasses the most beautiful things ” from the human body to animals to trees ” and when one analyzes how branches grow from a tree or how stems grow from a flower, there is a pattern.
“When people that don’t know anything about art walk up to a painting or a sculpture and they feel good about that piece, it’s not because they know why
they feel good,” Koehler said.
Re-creating the lure, the connection between nature and a manmade structure, is a challenge for any artist, he said.
Not only has he received public admiration, Koehler has also gained the respect of other artists, fabricators and machinists.
His most recent and largest work, “Rain,” a 28-foot sculpture, stands in the entrance
to the seventh floor of the Molasky Center in downtown Las Vegas.
“I am looking forward to doing grand things all over the world,” Koehler said, adding that he wants to network with organizations that can use his pieces for more than just sex appeal and having jewelry on their building.
“It has a meaning and it can help people that need that help in their life,” he said. “They need that inspiration.”
Larry Zeiger, a retired visual and performing arts teacher from Point Loma High, said Koehler is a gifted artist whose pieces meld the environment with modern art.
“His work is so wonderful for San Diego because I think we have one of the most beautiful natural environments and the cityscape is breathtaking,” Zeigersaid.
“If you see it (Koehler’s work) late in the afternoon when the sun is just starting to go down in the sky, it reflects palm trees, the natural beauty of San Diego,
as well as the cityscape with all the buildings reflecting. It’s just spectacular.”