JON "WATTO" WATSON

Each sculpture is a work of art that can change and set the mood of the environment where it is placed. Born in Chattanooga, Tennessee, Jon Watson studied art at the Art Institute of Atlanta. After a career in advertising and design, Jon began exploring his artistic ideas in metal. He has shown in selected exhibitions and is included in private collections throughout the United States and internationally.

My Journey As A Metal Artist

The journey that started with my mother giving me a pen and paper in church to keep me still, has led me to discovering my purpose in life. Simply put...“Working with metal is what I was put here to do.”

Over the years of searching and questioning everything, I found metal to be the most interesting and spiritually fulfilling medium for me to create with. My art is a combination of soft organic nature with the hard cold man made world we live in. And, when put together, it offers an array of thoughts and emotions to whoever is viewing it.

When I start on a new piece, everything else seems to fade away. With only the steel in front of me, and the thoughts in my head, I can begin to see it completed before I even start. I use a number of different techniques, with the most important being my hands, to bend and shape things using a gentle touch. This gives me the opportunity to let my work tell me how it should

be. My work also tells me when it’s time to stop.

As an artist, I am very fortunate to use my imagination to make a living. It doesn’t matter if the on looker loves or hates it, but that it provokes some sort of emotion. If I can get someone to think outside of their everyday world, I feel blessed.

Jon has been working with metal since 2005.