Jean Pierre Schloss is an Uxbridge, Ontario-based artist who, with his partner Brenda Tucker, owns Dog Bite Steel. Since 1990 Jean Pierre has assembled a loyal following from across North America who are attracted to his innovative recycled steel sculptures.
Starting out as a student at the Ontario College of Art, Jean Pierre gained essential skills and valuable experience in blown glass, experimental studies, foundry, wood and painting. After meeting his current wife and well known Canadian porcelain artist, Brenda Leigh Tucker, he embarked on a creative journey over 20 years to employ found steel including oil tanks, bicycle parts and farm implements capturing the human form and images from nature.
“My work often makes people laugh…I make a variety of creatures that can be installed so as to interact with one another. You can play by putting a six foot alligator in the bushes near a group of unsuspecting sheep. Basically, I want to create pieces that make people happy.”
As part of his creative process, Jean Pierre cuts apart, heats and recreates his steel stock to orchestrate his vision. While some pieces are forged and pounded into new forms, he also uses scraps of steel that have fallen away from other works to build new three dimensional sculptures.
Some disused steel products like oil tanks involve costly disposal making them unattractive to scrap yards. Early on, Jean Pierre spotted an opportunity and began using oil, water and propane tanks to save money as steel was so expensive. In preparing these castoffs, he meticulously drains the tanks of their sludge and arranges for the waste product to be properly recycled at a nearby depot.
What started out as a cost-saving exercise however soon became an environmental drive based on Jean Pierre’s conviction that “…it is everyone’s responsibility to care for the earth’s well-being – starting with garbage.” On a constant search for suitably thick steel, he regularly drags abandoned items from ditches throughout surrounding counties. This practical approach caught on such that neighbors from considerable distances now bring all manner of scrap steel to his shop.
“These used materials have a lot of character and always tell a story. Each recovered piece has a lot more to say than a big expensive sheet of new grey steel. I never just see a steel object. I see the new life waiting to come out of it.”
Jean Pierre’s favorite charities include:
• Daily Bread Food Bank
• Habitat For Humanity Canada
• Amnesty International
• The Red Cross
• Doctors Without Borders (Medecins Sans Frontieres)
