Jerry Cox creates functional art.
Artist Profile
Functional Art
St. Louis artist Jerry Cox puts a creative spin on furniture.
BY
Meryl Dillman
PHOTOGRAPHY
Colin Miller/Strauss Peyton

Even though Jerry Cox didn’t take his first real art class until he was in college, he has been drawn to the arts since he was young. “My parents wanted me to be a doctor or an engineer,” he says. But after he painted two 18-foot science-fiction-inspired murals on his bedroom walls, his family knew he was destined to be an artist. It was while he was earning his bachelor’s degree in fine arts from Westminster College/William Woods University in Fulton, Missouri that Jerry was turned on to woodworking and sculpting. After graduating, Jerry started working at an art supply store. There, he met a man who restored old jukeboxes and slot machines. While working with him, Jerry realized how much he truly enjoyed working with wood, creating sculptures.

After a few years of carving slot machines, also known as “one-armed bandits,” Jerry started creating his own sculptures and eventually started his own antiques restoration  business.

By this time Jerry had also developed the philosophy he lives by today: Furniture is art.

“I always had an affinity for sculptures and all things three-dimensional.” – Jerry Cox
“I look at my art as functional sculpture,” he says. Now hand-carved pieces such as tables and desks with intricate design and meaning that embody this philosophy enhance Jerry’s home as well as homes around the country.

Jerry goes through a similar process each time he creates an abstract wood construction. “I start with abstract shapes, and many times I title the sculpture by what it ends up looking like rather than the original concept,” Jerry says. “It gains a topic, a name, as I build it.” It can take anywhere from a weekend to 100 hours spanned over a year for Jerry to create a piece. Most of his work takes place in his 1,600-square-foot studio located behind his house just outside of St. Louis. Even though Jerry has been working in the arts for years, he’s noticing a new energy and drive to create what he thinks of as functional art. “I really feel there’s a movement of craft in America,” he says. “There’s just an explosion of people wanting to do it and wanting that kind of art done.”

Jerry Cox’s work can be found at NewSpace in St. Louis, where he is the general manager of fine wood products. He is a member of the St. Louis Artists’ Guild and the Craft Alliance Guild in St. Louis.  www.flickr.com/photos/jerrycox1/