© 2024 Milwaukee Public Media is a service of UW-Milwaukee's College of Letters & Science
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

"Partners in Art" Return Home With Colorful New Sculptures

"There's no place like home," says Michael Paul Thiry of Partners in Art.

After a  successful 15 year stint in the Southern California art community, Milwaukee artists Jerry Hirschmann and Michael Paul Thiry (also known as Partners in Art) have returned home. With them, they have brought their unique blown glass and stainless steel flower sculptures, which also double as practical bowls and plates and have gained them notable praise.

Both artists, Jerry Hirschmann and Michael Paul Thiry, began their careers in art in Milwaukee in the early 90's.

Hirschmann began his background in glass blowing by taking classes at a gallery in Saugatuck, Michigan. He later went on to take classes with the Chicago Institute of Art and then continued his studies at the Corning Studio of Glass.

A self-taught artist, Thiry began making sculptures during his summers after teaching where he would experiment in different forms of poured concrete. He began incorporating metal into his concrete sculptures, and then later moved more into metals when he began to teach himself how to weld. 

The two met over thirty years ago after Michael wanted to add color to his metal sculptures. The two began working together until years later, by chance, they built up one of the first flowers. "The thought came to Jerry and I...'we can do something with this, something really interesting,'" recollects Thiry.

The two have recently been the featured artists during the Channel 10 auction last month. You can see all of their recent work on their website

Bonnie North
Bonnie joined WUWM in March 2006 as the Arts Producer of the locally produced weekday magazine program Lake Effect.