His pieces aren't just something interesting to look at, but they provide a function. One magazine described Scego's work as "high end, modern, minimalist pieces that blur the lines between art and furniture."
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In fact, almost every Web reference to Scego makes note of the fact that he lives in "rural Missouri." At one site, a woman named Virginia comments how much she loves Scego's dining tables and wishes she could afford to buy one, but then adds, "He's from Missouri???? That's interesting."
That seems to be the response a lot of people have to Scego's work - shock that he's from Missouri, and even more shock that he chooses to live in "rural" Missouri. The expectation is that he would live in a big city, or at least somewhere on one of the coasts.
Scego said he did try his hand at living in urban areas - Springfield during his college days at Southwest Missouri State University, and later downtown Washington - but found he preferred the quietness of the country. Some people have described Scego as a recluse, but he doesn't feel that's accurate.
"I like my privacy," he said, simply.
Scego and his wife, Gina, recently built a home on a wooded piece of property in Beaufort. The couple had previously lived in a home near the corner of Fourth and Jefferson in Washington, which is where he created some of his first art pieces.
"We left some metal bushes behind," Scego said, referring to the sculptures along the front of the house that serve as landscaping. He also created a metal backsplash for the kitchen and furniture for the house.
Those pieces unintentionally gave Scego his start as a commissioned artist. People who came to the house and saw his work commented how much they liked them so Scego decided to make pieces to sell.
Growing up in Owensville, Scego said he never imagined he would work as an artist someday. In high school (Class of '99), he took painting and drawing classes, but when he enrolled in college he was drawn to cell and molecular biology courses.
He scrapped that though and ended up graduating with a degree in business. He assumed he would have a career in the corporate world, but discovered that wasn't a good fit.
Scego came home to Owensville where his father owns an auto body shop and where, during high school, he had worked doing industrial painting. He drew on that experience and decided to start his own business, Select Powder Coating, also in Owensville. The company paints mundane things like hospital beds, industrial parts, display cases, lamps and such, but it serves Scego's design and art business because he uses the equipment at Select Powder Coating to paint his art pieces.
Today Select Powder Coating remains Scego's primary job. He said he typically works about 70 hours a week - 50 hours for Select Powder Coating and about 20 hours designing, creating and painting furniture for Cole Scego Design.
Scego's not a full-time artist, but he dreams of the day he can be. Many people would say he's well on his way.
It's only been about three or four years since he started creating art pieces and in that short time he's made a name for himself around the world. Scego has been featured in magazines and catalogs in the United Kingdom, Russia, Hong Kongs and Israel. He's also been written about in local publications like St. Louis at Home and Rural Missouri.
Last fall, Scego was invited to take part in a Pecha Kucha Nights event in Kansas City, where artists and designers can present 20 images of their work and are given 20 seconds to talk about each image.
Later this summer, Scego's work will be shown at a gallery in St. Louis, and there are plans to be part of a gallery in Los Angeles.
Each Piece Begins With a Sketch
In creating designs for his art pieces, Scego said he doesn't draw inspiration from any one thing in particular. In many cases, he is inspired from bits and pieces of other artwork and "mashes" them together into a new piece.
"I do carry a moleskin (notebook) with me everywhere because I'm frequently taking notes or making sketches," he said. "Out of maybe 150 sketches, I may build one."
Once a design is finished on paper, Scego produces a final drawing on the computer. He sends the design to a metal fabricator shop in Washington to have the pieces built. Then he sandblasts them using a set of biodegradable cleaning solutions and a chemical seal to prep them for powder coating. "I choose to use powder coating because it is much more friendly to the environment than traditional solvent based paints, as it contains no volatile organic compounds (VOCs)," Scego notes on his Web site, www.colescegodesign.com.
"Powder coating is applied electrostatically in a dry form. The product receives a negative charge through a ground, as the powder receives a positive charge from the application gun," he explains. "The powder material basically adheres like a magnet until it is baked on."
Scego's pieces have multicolor, multilayer finishes and other design patterns that make each unique. These are achieved using masking, spraying, and application techniques not commonly used in the field of powder coating, said Scego.
"I am one of very few people in the world developing these techniques out of necessity and curiosity," he notes on his Web site. "Most powder coating applications use only one color and a single coat. I often use up to 10 colors and a clear coat on a single piece. I have spent a great deal of time developing a wide variety of application techniques to achieve the desired finish on my work and I hope you can appreciate the beauty and deviation from the norm.
"For masking, I generally use high temp resistant silicone tape and hand cut stencils using silicone sheet," he told The Missourian. "I somtimes spray through off-the-shelf (objects) such as doiles and generic stencils. The powder is applied in dry form and then cured in an oven which gives me the ability to smear it, smudge it, brush it, blow it, etc. before curing to create desired effects. Sometimes I just throw/drop powder at/on the piece while it is hot which causes it to melt wherever it happens to land."
Scego's pieces are environmentally friendly because they are made of recyclable material and because they are built to stand the test of time - both structurally and in their finish. Powder coat painting is more durable than other methods.
Scego likes the idea that his pieces could be around 100 years from now, maybe the antiques of tomorrow.
