Gordon Huether, Napa artist and creator of spectacular artwork and sculpture for private residences and public places around the U.S., is living his dream. “I’m doing today what I wanted to do since I was 16 years old. It was go big or stay home.”
His projects are so extensive in number and large-scale that one wonders how he accomplishes so much so well. “I live and breathe art,” Huether, 49, says. “I don’t make much distinction between my personal and professional life. I’m a walking art organism, driven to be creative and successful.”
He also credits his staff. “I have built a team and surrounded myself with people who are more talented and smarter than I am.” He pays tribute to their high level of professionalism and quality in their work that is completed on time. “It’s not enough just to be a good artist.”
He says, “The creative process is fun. I enjoy thinking about what I want to do. With foam core and glue gun, I go from a 24 inch long model to a project as long as a football field.”
His projects include airports, transportation centers, hotels, civic buildings, recreation centers, private corporations and residences. Huether encourages people to visit Artesa Winery in Napa, where he is permanent artist-in-residence. Or, in their travels, they can see numerous projects he has done over the past 20 years.
His new studio is a showplace of his work. The Gordon Huether Studio moved in May to Monticello Road, into a 15,000-square-foot facility, which, Huether says, “is pretty incredible, compared to our old facility. It’s the Taj Mahal of glass art and sculpture studios plus it has a beautiful fine art gallery as well.” The latter – the Hay Barn Gallery – showcases Huether’s fine artwork while the project gallery focuses on large scale, site-specific installations. It’s a place where clients can view techniques and be guided in making selections, he says.
Since founding the studio in 1989, Huether has been awarded 50 public art projects and completed more than 150 private commissions. He has just been commissioned to create a signature sculpture for a waterfront condominium project in St. Petersburg, Florida. The $400,000 “O-Wave” will be made of stainless steel and dichroic glass and will stand 16 feet tall.
“I have about 20 to 30 projects going on at the same time,” he says. Current projects include the John Muir Medical Center in Walnut Creek where he is creating a mountain range the length of a football field, with one layer of corten steel, two layers of glass, and a 150-foot-long river of light made of glass inset into the landscape. For the Houston Hobby Airport, he is chartering a small plane with a camera and taking aerial photographs of the area, which he’ll transcribe to large glass panels along a connecting bridge between the ticketing concourse and the gates.
Other public art projects in progress are at Jacksonville, Florida, International Airport, Richmond, California, Civic Center, Petaluma Mall, Sacramento County Sanitation District, Tucson Civic Center and the Mexican American Cultural Center in Austin. Projects range from $100,000 to $750,000.
He is creating a 25-foot wall of steel and glass for a private residence in Big Sur and a 60-foot etched glass wall for a home in Carmel. He is designing a home for himself with glass walls. In his present residence, he displays some of his own art and a small collection by artists with aesthetics similar to his. In the new home, he says, “I’ll have precious few walls to hang art on.”
His preferred media is mixing medias. “I started in glass as a teenager, but didn’t want to limit myself to one medium. I like weathered patina metals, which have some presence of nature and I bring in glass in juxtaposition with it.”
His approach to commissions is based on three parameters: the use, users of the building or space and the artist’s soul. “The use and users of the space create a visual dialogue between the building and art - an integrated approach to art and architecture.” The third parameter brings in “the artist’s soul, spirit and interpretation, which happens on an intuitive, spiritual level,” he says. He has achieved that from his years as an artist.
“I’ve always been interested in art,” he says. “I was born with the soul of an artist. At 6 or 7 years, I worried about what I’d do when I grew up.” At age 10, he felt he had no talent because he thought talent was based on a traditional renaissance attitude. He then discovered talent could include conceptual thinking. “So much of art is conceptual,” he says.
At age 3, he and his parents moved from his birthplace, Rochester, N.Y. to Napa, then a community of 20,000. “I like where I live,” he says. That’s a change from the time he thought he should be in New York or Los Angeles to be successful. “As I grew as an artist, so did my community. Instead of going to New York, I’d like New York to come to me. Napa is a destination place now and that’s why I can say, ‘New York, come on!’”
His goal? “I want to do more of the same and bigger in different parts of the world.” He is working on an “enormous project” for a church in Homburg-Saar, Germany.
He wants to be remembered for his work and his new building. “For me, it’s like, as the Christians, say, ‘born again.’ I’d like myself and staff to live up to what it says – a center to grow as an artist and business person.”
What would he like people to say about him? “That Gordon Huether left a very positive mark on the world and on individuals and that part of his legacy would be that his work far outlives the artist…that his art would be around for generations to come, to edify and inspire his fellowman.”
The Hay Barn Gallery is open from 9 a.m.-4 p.m. Mon-Fri and 11 a.m.-5 p.m. Sat-Sun. For more information and to view of portfolio of his work, visit GordonHuether.com or call 707-255-5954. •
Public Projects by Gordon Huether
Jack London Square,
Oakland, CA
Napa Fifth Street Parking Garage,
Napa, CA
Jacksonville International Airport,
Jacksonville, FL
Petaluma Tower,
Petaluma, CA
Richmond Civic Center Renovation,
Richmond, CA
Tucson Justice Court/Municipal Court Complex,
Tucson, AZ
Texas Tech University School of Law,
Lubbock, TX
John Muir Medical Center, Walnut Creek Campus,
Walnut Creek, CA
Dallas Homeless Assistance Center,
Dallas, TX
Marsh Creek Bridge,
Brentwood, CA
Sacramento Regional County Sanitation District;
Sacramento, CA
Salt Palace Convention Center,
Salt Lake City, UT
City of Glendale Foothills Recreation & Aquatics Center,
Glendale, AZ
San Jose Fire Department Station 17,
San Jose, CA
St. Joseph’s Hospital and Medical Center,
Phoenix, AZ
Issaquah Transit Center,
Issaquah, WA
North Shore Parking Structure,
Stockton, CA
San Mateo Public Library,
San Mateo, CA
Fred Waring Corridor Project,
Palm Desert, CA
Falcon Field Airport Terminal,
Mesa, AZ
San Joaquin Council of Governments,
Stockton, CA
William P. Hobby Airport,
Houston, TX
Denver International Airport Child Care Center,
Denver, CO
Playground Fantastico,
Napa, CA
BART San Bruno Station,
San Bruno, CA
Sacramento Midtown Parking Garage,
Sacramento, CA
SEPTA Frankford Transportation Center,
Philadelphia, PA
Charles Schwab Building;
San Francisco, CA
University of Oregon Recreation & Fitness Center,
Eugene, OR
Hope and Healing Center,
Memphis, TN
Utah State University Widstoe Hall Science Learning Center,
