Sit at Your Peril Chairs
Welcome to Sit at Your Peril Chairs. Each piece is one-of-a-kind. I incorporate found objects, international textiles, applique, reverse applique, embroidery, custom-mixed paints, spray paint, beads, buttons, glass, nativity scenes, religious nicknacks, and anything else that catches my eye when I create these unique pieces of art from random chairs saved from swap meets and thrift shops, doomed and sitting by the curb on trash day, and languishing in friends' garages and attics.
I've been asked many times (most recently by an exasperated 7-year-old boy who was about to sit in/on one of my more fragile pieces before I shrieked, "No!") why I make chairs that no one is supposed to actually occupy. Great question. Why did Sir Edmund Hillary climb Mount Everest? When I begin working on a new chair, I set out to make a unique, quirky, fun creation - not a piece of furniture. Chairs cease to be furniture as soon as I get my hands on them. Art enhances an environment. That is its purpose. We do not presume to sit on sculptures, even if their shape suggests that we could. The same goes for my chairs: They enhance an environment...but Sit at Your Peril.
My assemblage department features over-the-top folk art to hang on your wall; many of my assemblage pieces have a religious theme while some poke fun at religion and politics...your choice. Fortunately, the question of whether or not it's all right to sit on an assemblage hasn't come up. Cross your fingers.
The Middle East Collection...On our anniversary, my partner presented me with a bag of felt-board bible study figures he found at a local thrift shop. He wasn't sure I'd like them...I LOVED them. I spent many happy hours irreverently arranging and rearranging them to tell stories and poke fun, then writing dialogue to go with the scenes before ultimately settling on the finished products.
The "And Other Things..." category is where shoppers can find whatever else I cook up that is not an assemblage, a chair, or something kinda- sorta Judeo-Christian that's made of felt. I will let you decide for yourself on a case-by-case basis if you can safely sit on any of these .
If you're interested in purchasing any of my art, please use my contact page to ask me for more information, because I don't use this site for sales. If it says the item is not available, don't believe it. Thanks! J. Elliott - [email protected].
I've been asked many times (most recently by an exasperated 7-year-old boy who was about to sit in/on one of my more fragile pieces before I shrieked, "No!") why I make chairs that no one is supposed to actually occupy. Great question. Why did Sir Edmund Hillary climb Mount Everest? When I begin working on a new chair, I set out to make a unique, quirky, fun creation - not a piece of furniture. Chairs cease to be furniture as soon as I get my hands on them. Art enhances an environment. That is its purpose. We do not presume to sit on sculptures, even if their shape suggests that we could. The same goes for my chairs: They enhance an environment...but Sit at Your Peril.
My assemblage department features over-the-top folk art to hang on your wall; many of my assemblage pieces have a religious theme while some poke fun at religion and politics...your choice. Fortunately, the question of whether or not it's all right to sit on an assemblage hasn't come up. Cross your fingers.
The Middle East Collection...On our anniversary, my partner presented me with a bag of felt-board bible study figures he found at a local thrift shop. He wasn't sure I'd like them...I LOVED them. I spent many happy hours irreverently arranging and rearranging them to tell stories and poke fun, then writing dialogue to go with the scenes before ultimately settling on the finished products.
The "And Other Things..." category is where shoppers can find whatever else I cook up that is not an assemblage, a chair, or something kinda- sorta Judeo-Christian that's made of felt. I will let you decide for yourself on a case-by-case basis if you can safely sit on any of these .
If you're interested in purchasing any of my art, please use my contact page to ask me for more information, because I don't use this site for sales. If it says the item is not available, don't believe it. Thanks! J. Elliott - [email protected].