A haven for his work; Artist uses found items, skills to create home, sculpture garden

MILWAUKEE — In a bark burl at the bottom of a woodpile, Paul Bobrowitz saw a mask with a wise man's face. In an old sewing machine case, he saw a handy computer printer table.

On a wooded plot of land on a back road in Colgate, Wis., he saw his dream home.

Bobrowitz, a carpenter turned sculptor, has made an artistic career out of creating something unexpected out of — well, lots of "other things."

How else would you describe the found-object and scrap-metal artwork displayed in his sculpture garden, studio and house that is "other" than what it seems.

Drive down Paul and his wife Sandy's block-long driveway, and you're welcomed on either side by a startling honor guard of stainless steel, aluminum and iron sculptures, everything from 7-foot knights to giant llamas. The house itself looks for all the world like a 19th-century log cabin.

But it's not. The 2,600-square-foot, four bedroom, three-bath home arose in 1984 from several sets of plans selected by the Bobrowitz family and two designers. The family used modern building methods but made the house "look like a log cabin," says Paul.

IN USE AGAIN

Inside, all is again not what it seems. Flip aside a fieldstone on one of the home's three fireplaces, and you'll find it conceals the switch to the fireplace fan. Interior walls weren't whitewashed by some settler, but plastered by a modern Wisconsin artisan. Closet sliding doors aren't new, but vintage barn wood planks. And virtually all the furniture had a previous life.

"Everything in this house is a part of me. Selling salvage material is part of my life. Only now I see salvage and old furniture as artwork," says Bobrowitz, who believes using recycled material is a way to help the planet from being doomed by its own wastefulness.

He has won many awards for his sculpture, and his pieces are exhibited in several civic settings, from North Lake to the Davenport, Iowa, Cultural District.

His artwork will be featured as part of the free, 26th annual Monches Artisans Holiday Tour on Dec. 5 and 6.

Most of the Bobrowitz home furnishings have secret back-stories. A beautiful dining room buffet served as a mere baker's cabinet before Bobrowitz bought it for $12 and refinished it. A leather-topped, drop-leaf table with three legs limped into someone's trash until Bobrowitz gave it a full set of scrap-metal legs. A large mirror includes glass that languished in a roadside bin until Bobrowitz rescued it, framed it in black walnut and hung it on his wall. He saved a wooden rocker from a similar Dumpster demise.

"Doing this is part of me," he says.

CARVING OUT A NICHE

Sandy joins Paul in the recycling work. The kitchen cabinets glow with salvage copper fronts she designed incorporating vintage pie safe-style patterns.