Monroe metal artist to give demonstration Tuesday

Greg Koesel is known in the community for leading bicycle trips, but he’s also an artist.

Koesel of Frenchtown Township, a life member of the Monroe Art League, works in metal. His fine art education began in an auto body shop.

"My dad was an auto body repairman and had his own shop for a time. I picked up the basics of metalworking from him. Eventually, I started building and racing cars. (Among them) was a 1930s-era Indy car," Koesel said. "The irony is that the very same skills needed to repair a car fender or to build a race car body from scratch are the same skills needed for creating beautiful art objects."

Today, Koesel's metal pieces go beyond cars to sculptures, swords, women's shoes, even a suit of armor.

“Sometimes our members wow us with their talent. (Greg) has extensive and very impressive metalworking skills,” Eve Weatherholt, president of the Monroe Art League, said.

At 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, Koesel will show some of his favorite pieces, including the suit of armor, give a live metal demonstration and talk about his work at the United Way building, 216 N. Monroe St. Admission is free. The public is welcome.

"I will take a blank sheet of metal and, through several samples partially completed, take it to a completed leaf," Koesel said. "I'm also going to have a demonstration going on that will quickly age a shiny plate of copper into a patinaed, aged-looking piece with the characteristic green hue that would normally take years."

Koesel's metalwork can be found around Monroe County.

"I was fortunate to be involved in the building of the pavilion on Loranger Square (in downtown Monroe)," Koesel said. "I created 'The Lifecycle of the Lotus' that adorns the central arch. The (Monroe County) Library System also has at least one of my pieces for loan in their collection."

The Loranger Square piece is his biggest to date, at about 14 feet long. His favorite piece is "Wading Game," a heron sculpture, which won first place in an art contest sponsored by the American Society of Metals. His second favorite pieces are two women's high-heeled shoes.

Besides working with his dad, Koesel took some mechanical drawing and drafting classes in high school. As a Ford engineer, he attended drawing seminars, and he took one art appreciation class at Monroe County Community College. He also learns from talking to artists and touring museums.

"My mom gave us kids cultural exposure to museums and galleries," Koesel said.

For a time, Koesel taught welding part-time at MCCC and created some of his pieces there. Now, he works mostly at home. He gets metal from local steel suppliers, scrap yards and the trash.

"I am not above doing a little 'dumpster diving' if I see something that can be repurposed," Koesel said. "Anything from a bottle cap to a coil of steel heavy enough to need a hoist to lift is fair game."

The artist said every piece, even simple ones, takes many hours.

"Between researching, drawing, sketching, making plans and cutting out patterns, then forming, welding, polishing or painting, it is a somewhat involved process," Koesel said. "I am working on a large animal sculpture that I've been creating, on and off, for a few years. I've become more active in creating art as my children left home as adults."

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Koesel sells some of his pieces, but mostly he just enjoys the process.

"I am thrilled when others want to own one of my pieces. Some sell. Others I display at home. Some collect dust in the attic," Koesel said. "The important thing for me is to create something unique. I just do it because it pleases me. It's therapeutic."

This article originally appeared on The Monroe News: Monroe metal artist to give demonstration Tuesday