Innovation + Art = Peter Lochren

by Nick Schinker

It takes a few moments for the eyes to adjust after stepping from the bright sunshine into the subdued lighting of Omaha artist Peter Lochren’s downtown gallery.

Even then, you might not believe what you see.To the left is a 1970 Cadillac ambulance, painted in glossy shades of blue, with hovering spacecraft, a futuristic metal- finned mermaid and mean-faced metallic fish along the sides. A Silver Surfer figurine rides atop the hood in a boat, holding a fishing pole in hopes of catching one of the freaky metal bass swimming on the fender below. And on the roof, in a clear plastic pod, a green alien lies on its back staring up at the stars, presumably toward home.

Beside the “Ambulance to the Future” sits an old Chrysler K- car, decorated with a few hundred thousand items that Lochren has glued, one by one, to the car’s body. Bottle caps. Coins. Rocks. Used Bic lighters. Cassette tapes. So many things that none of the car’s metal body can be seen.

Next is “ReinCarNation,” Lochren’s entry in the J. Doe series. Resting on its back atop a rebuilt 1988 Sears lawn tractor, this Doe is painted black with flames streaming back from its head. Fully functional right down to the taillights on Doe’s feet, Lochren drives his creation in parades and other events. And when he does, he wears one of the helmets he made to
match each vehicle.

“I took my art off the wall and put it on the street,” he says, “because I wanted to take it to the people. To me, these are per-fect canvasses.” His art is wild, entertaining, provocative, inventive and extremely unique. As is the artist himself.

Born 35 years ago in North Tonawanda, N.Y., Lochren moved to Omaha with his family in the 1980s. His art skills are largely self-taught, and his range is as broad as his imagination. In addition to his art cars, Lochren also creates ceramics and pottery, and sculpts “metal creatures,” heavy, interactive figures crafted from found metal, glass and natural objects that when assembled range from a few feet tall to more than 12-feet.

Clearly, the artist is having fun. And he’s trying to pass that fun along to the world. “I was always impressed by art as a child,” he says. “Ever since the get-go I’ve gone out of my way to participate in things I enjoy. When I was a kid, I built a half-pipe in my backyard so the other kids could come over and skateboard. If there wasn’t anything for people to do, I’d create something.”

His father worked for AT&T and in his spare time taught him about cars, from the engines to paint and body work. Later, Lochren learned more about graphic arts working in a T-shirt shop near Benson. “I met an artist there who taught me airbrushing. That really got me inspired.”

He joined the staff of the Omaha Children’s Museum in 1989, installing exhibits and running the museum’s fabrication shop. He has worked as a subcontractor for the museum since 1998. He has fashioned several exhibits of his own for the Children’s Museum, including one currently on display, a piece sponsored by Certified Transmissions that shows kids all about
gears and gravity in a downhill race between shoebox-sized Hummers.

“I like art to be interactive,” he says. “I did a children’s art car for the Arts on the Green festival where kids made stickers to put on the side of a wooden car. I have a delivery van that’s covered in blackboard so kids can do chalk drawings on the sides.”

Of about a dozen works in progress, one is an interactive mobile exhibit that combines an old van with trashed computer parts. The van’s body is covered in discarded mother boards, keyboards and a conga line of mouse after mouse. His hope is to put working monitors in place of the van’s side windows, allowing the curious to come up, use the keyboards and interact with the screens.

“Now that this stuff is all supposedly obsolete, it’s just clogging up our landfills. I decided I’m going to do something creative with it.”The project suffered a bit of a setback recently when the van collided with a car that had run a red light. “In an instant, the title went from Communication Breakdown to Computer Crash.”

Lochren loves tooling around the country in his art cars. That’s one reason he lives in Omaha.“I have a lot of friends on the east and west coasts, and being here is a good central point. It’s a nice home base and the cost of living is decent. I started rooting in, and I found a lot of good people here.”

His gallery and workspaces are in two buildings at 16th and Cuming Streets, in the shadow of the new Model T loft apartments. He sees the area’s potential and appreciates that he has space to work and expand his projects.

“I have private shows and I have plenty of room to do some pretty impressive things,” he says. “I wouldn’t have this kind of space if I moved to the coast.”His gallery and studio have lots of room for entertaining. Along one wall he’s crafted a long bar from old cars, with bumpers as footrests. He’s built a stage and features a variety of bands during his showings and holiday parties.

“I’ve given the place a big city atmosphere. People come here from L.A. and New York, look around and say, ‘There just isn’t anything like this anywhere.’”He and longtime companion Christine Walker collaborate on some projects, such as the 1940 Buick rear window frames they turned into brightly-colored butterflies.

“I really enjoy taking found objects and turning them into something,” Lochren says. “I like to find stuff. I see stuff in it and it just evolves.”He volunteers at area art events, including the Renaissance Faire in Council Bluffs, where he has been site director for seven years. He says he enjoys producing art for non-profit agencies, as with the 12-foot-tall metal tree he recently built for a local children’s respite care facility.

The tree has a welcoming face and roots that can cradle kids as they sit and read. The branches are fashioned from old rebar taken from Jobbers Canyon buildings, and the shiny metal leaves are on springs so there is movement and life to the work. And he’s hidden beehives and bird nests for
the kids to find.

“I have a fine eye for detail, and I love to incorporate that into my work. My father always said I have Superman’s eyes.”Lochren takes an often absurd idea and makes it work. He turned the front half of a 1957 Dodge into a “car bar,” complete with a small refrigerator and, of course, a car stereo.

“I’m making a computer desk out of a 1959 Edsel,” he says, grinning. “I thought that would be perfectly ironic.”Although the majority of his creations come direct from his imagination, Lochren will work with other’s ideas to bring them to reality. He can be reached via email at pal_2000 AT hotmail.com.

Lochren loves showing off his work. He regularly enters his art cars in contests across the country – driving every mile to attend each event. “It’s not that I like getting stared at,” he says, although that is the common reaction. “I want to open people’s eyes. I want to take them away from their normal day, even if just for an instant, and have them stand back and say, ‘Wow.’”Sometimes, they say more than that. Especially when he drives his “Ambulance of the Future,” the show-stopper with the little alien on the roof.

“That alien theme is a big attraction. I’ve had people come up to me and start telling me about how they were abducted by aliens and rode in spaceships. Like they think I was, too, and
that I understand.”Lochren swears he’s never been abducted by aliens. It’s his
imagination that’s out of this world. OMAG

www.omahapublications.com — 35 — may | june | 2005