Moultrie’s Iron Man: Buehre creates art in metal

Adelia Ladson

MOULTRIE — Fluid is not a word one would usually use to describe a metal sculpture but A.J. Buehre exudes an aura of fluidity of thought and creativity that comes through his work.

“For several years the flow has not stopped. I’ve been so blessed,” he said.

Buehre, who grew up in Milwaukee, Wis., has been in Moultrie for ten years now. He said he wanted a change and was tired of the snow and cold. So he and his wife, Geri, moved here because her mother lived here.

“We had a destination,” he said.

He said he has always worked with metal in his jobs, and creativity runs in his family.

“My career started out as a welder and a fabricator,” he said.

He said his dad was his influence because he started out as a welder, became a fabricator, and eventually worked his way to a vice president.

“A lot of it’s inherited and a lot of it is just his influence,” Buehre said.

He said he had a gallery in the past, for about a year, but really did not like the experience.

“I didn’t want to prostitute myself,” he said.

He said there was a high demand for his art works and people wanted them “yesterday.” He had made a pledge to himself that he wouldn’t make two of the same thing and that was what the customers wanted from him.

“I just refused. I didn’t sell my soul,” he said.

So he stopped for awhile to regroup. In the meantime, he became a mechanical engineer for 15 years or so.

“I was able to vent my creativeness that way,” he said.

When he moved to Moultrie, he started working on his art again and has a studio on his property. Buehre’s South Milwaukee Iron pieces have shown at various galleries locally and nationally.

Buehre said he tries to stay with copper, brass, bronze, and aluminum as his mediums because they are more expensive metals. He also loves the way copper can get a patina or turn different colors when touched with flame.

They way he works is very free-flowing and he works anytime of the day or night. The only thing that keeps him from working sometimes are health issues.

“When it starts flowing, it’s just there and I’m fortunate enough to do it when it happens,” he said.

He said he doesn’t have a timetable for his pieces and if he is commissioned, he tells his customers ahead of time that he will call them when the piece is ready. He said if it seems like the work is not flowing, he will stop working on it.

“The worst thing you can do is come out here and force yourself to make something,” he said.

He said his ideas, however, usually keep coming.

“You just get in the zone. It’s always been so rewarding,” he said.

Buehre creates jewelry to sculptures and has even built furniture out of motorcycle parts. He said he would try anything and he doesn’t just stay with one subject matter.

“I just go with the flow,” he said.

When building his sculptures he said he spends a lot of time designing the projects in his head because they have to be structurally sound.

“You have to be more of an engineer than artist on some of this,” he said.

On the other hand, he also creates pieces that “just happen” and when he joins the pieces, they come together into a sculpture.

He said he either has it in his head or he has to design it because of the structural engineering involved.

He has been commissioned to build a large sculpture for the Colquitt County Arts Center’s property. He said he has already worked on preliminary drawings of the design.

“The jewelry started out as a mistake,” he said.

He said he had some extra copper lying around and he started messing around with it and made a funky looking pieces. He said he took it in to show his wife and asked her “Does this look weird to you?” and she said, “No, are you kidding me? That looks fantastic.” So now, he has a whole line of jewelry.

“The ideas never stop. I’m so blessed,” he said.

Everything that he uses, he said, is recycled material. He sees stuff out in the community or maybe along side of the road to use in his artwork.

“I find a lot of stuff or I will search it out,” he said.

He said he also has some sources that he can go to on a yearly basis and get materials from — free of charge.

“I’m just blessed. I’ve got a real knack at being able to get stuff,” he said.

The “stuff” that he has gotten seems as varied as his art pieces. He has sculptures made out of original Harley-Davidson parts that are 40 years old and irreplaceable, he said.

“It makes these extra special to me,” Buehre said.

He said he used to ride by a Harley-Davidson assembly plant in Milwaukee on his way to work and it really inspired him.

“I probably have as much interest in motorcycles as I do this,” he said.

He also has quirky insects and creatures that he has made out of car and motorcycle parts, rebar, and other metal objects. Some of these are on display at the arts center and will also be on display in the children’s library at the Moultrie-Colquitt County Library this summer.

He said that when he works, he likes to listen to music, from Z.Z. Topp to Michael W. Smith.

“I like to play loud music ... until the windows shake with the bass,” he said.

But he doesn’t keep it loud when he’s working on the smaller jewelry pieces.

“It’s really all about the flow. ... You need to know the limits of the material you’re working with. If you didn’t, you would be a hack,” he said.

He said it is easy for him to transition from building huge sculptures to making jewelry because he learned to be adaptable in his previous jobs.

“I’m constantly telling myself to think out of the box,” he said.

He said that part of the accomplishment was thinking that way and when something was created from it, that was really nice as well.

He said he does not have some “big philosophy of life” but he just builds his art work for him and he feels his biggest challenge is to be original.

“I do it for me and I do it on my schedule. ... I do it because I enjoy it. So many artists have sold their souls and that’s sad. I’d rather go hungry than do that,” he said emphatically.

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