The Feeling of Motion: Ben Anschutz and the Art of Copper Sculptures

Copper tree sculpture by Ben Anschutz.

This weekend, the Peninsula School of Art will open Unusually Natural, an exhibition of unusual media taking natural forms, from 3D printed plant-like plastic sculptures to leaf skeletons woven from strands of human hair.

Among the five artists exhibiting their representational and whimsical works of art is Ben Anschutz, a Baileys Harbor resident who uses his expertise as a journeyman plumber to give new life to the cast-off copper and wire of his day job.

Influenced by the beauty and complexity of the local environment, Anschutz creates one-of-a-kind fine art sculptures of trees, plants and wildlife using copper tubing, wire and natural materials. Today, those pieces of art are branded under Anschutz’s small art business, Door County Copper Works.

“Each piece captures the timelessness and strength of Wisconsin’s stunning landscapes, from the windswept trees of the peninsula to the weathered driftwood of the lakeshore,” a brochure for Door County Copper Works reads.

Anschutz is a lifelong artist whose two-dimensional creations during his college years made way for copper just a few years ago while the Door County native lived and worked in Carlsville.

Ben Anschutz stands in front of a work-in-progress in his home studio in Baileys Harbor.

The inspiration?

“Work, really,” Anschutz said. “The amount of scrap laying around and working with it everyday…I found with the copper and wire I could really capture the feeling of motion.”

Motion is the central theme of his tree sculptures – with a fossilized rock forming the base of most pieces, Anschutz hand-bends wire to create the roots, trunk and branches of the sculptures, which range in size from a few inches to a couple feet.

One sculpture in particular was inspired by a tree at Maxwelton Braes Golf Course that lived long enough for Anschutz to photograph and immortalize it in copper before becoming victim to the Aug. 2, 2015 storms that swept over the county.

As he has become more comfortable with the medium, the themes and stature of his creations have expanded. While he admits he can’t quite get away from making trees, he has successfully created figurative sculptures of cattails and lilies, wildlife skulls, water birds and monograms.

Apple tree sculpture by Ben Anschutz.

“I just start dismantling things visually,” Anschutz explained. “For the cattails piece, I actually brought cattails back here in the fall and took them apart piece by piece and learned how they were growing. I recreated that in bronze from what I saw. The lily pads, the same thing – I brought the lily pad home, templated it, and took lots of photographs.”

Relying on the buckets of found rocks, fossils and cast-off copper sitting in his garage has allowed Anschutz to thrive in an artistic hobby that, time provided, gives him the freedom to create in ways he ordinarily can’t on the job.

“Plumbing all day with the copper, you can do it wrong, you can make mistakes,” he said. “I come home here at night and you can’t do it wrong. You just work at it until you like it. It’s different – same material, totally different.”

Unusually Natural is Anschutz’s first invitational show. He has taken part in the annual Guenzel Gallery Salon a few times, winning third place for the People’s Choice Award in 2014 for his sculpture, “Apple Tree in Limestone.”

Unusually Natural will be on display from Aug. 22 – Oct. 18 at the Peninsula School of Art and is free and open to the public. For more information on Door County Copper Works, visit Etsy.com/Shop/DoorCoCopperWorks or email [email protected].