When you picture an artist’s toolkit, certain things probably come to mind: paints, brushes, paper, canvas. But for an artist like Kris Nelson, there’s another essential material that’s needed: chairs. Nelson is a Cloquet-based artist with an ambitious goal: to paint 1,000 chairs before she turns 100. But her project is about more than sheer numbers. As she paints, each chair of the 1,000 tells a unique story: stories about her own life, her surroundings in northern Minnesota, and the things that matter most.
Nelson’s journey into chair painting began when she was an art teacher in search of a new project for her students. After stumbling across some forgotten chairs in the basement, she brought them to her students to paint. Little did she know that this happy discovery would alter the course of her artistic career forever.
“Something about the project clicked, and I knew that was what I was going to do when I retired,” Nelson said.
And that’s exactly what she did. Nelson retired in 2007 and developed the idea of painting 1,000 chairs before she turns 100. She has become affectionately known as “the chair lady,” and paints around 36 chairs a year. As of this writing, she was on chair #678—over halfway to her goal.
So, what is it about chairs that so intrigues Nelson? “For me, a chair is like a person with different parts. It has a back, seat, legs, arms,” Nelson said. “My process often starts with recycling. I think it’s neat to take something that someone was going to throw away, something ordinary, and transform it into something extraordinary.”
Over the years, Nelson has collected over 150 repurposed chairs at her studio, which are waiting to be painted. Selecting the right chair is the first step for each project. Whether she’s found an old chair on her own or is painting a specific chair for a customer, there’s often some repair work involved before painting can begin. Once the selected chair is ready to go, Nelson sands it, primes it, and sketches out the design. She then paints with an acrylic paint, and once the painting is finished, she seals the chair with three coats of polycrylic. She gives each chair a number (both commissioned pieces and her own work count toward her goal of 1,000) and the transformation is complete.
It’s one thing to name a lofty goal like painting 1,000 chairs. It’s quite another to actually stick with said goal and still be executing it years later. Nelson’s work shows a great amount of determination, but also of inspiration. Each of her chairs is a completely unique piece of art, with the same design never repeated. To come up with 1,000 distinct ideas, Nelson typically works in series. Living on a lake in Cloquet, Nelson said that the water is a big source of inspiration, as is the greater natural beauty found throughout the Northern Wilds. Recently, she’s been painting a series of Minnesota State Park chairs, and has already painted chairs of several North Shore favorites, including Cascade Falls State Park, Gooseberry Falls State Park, Split Rock State Park, and Tettegouche State Park.
And while northern Minnesota’s natural beauty is certainly a source of inspiration, many of Nelson’s chairs also tell more personal stories. She cites a painting class at the University of Minnesota as a huge turning point in her career. While her painting professor liked her chairs, he encouraged her to try getting more personal with her work. Nelson took the advice to heart and decided to explore a pivotal time in her life: her divorce. The chair she created was called “Death of a Marriage,” and featured part of a wedding dress—the actual dress Nelson wore at her wedding and cut apart for the project.
“This was very much a turning point in my art,” Nelson said. “I started to paint more about me and my personal life, as well as statement pieces about things I care about. It’s become the soul of my work.”
Over the years, Nelson has painted chairs for clients, sold chairs though local shops, and painted pieces in conjunction with her role as an art curator for the Encore Performing Arts Center & Gallery in Cloquet. But no matter the reason for picking up the paintbrush and selecting the next chair, Nelson said that each chair out of the 1,000 brings her joy.
“I’m an artist, and chairs are my canvas. I want to give them new life, and I love what I do.”
Kris Nelson’s chair art can be found at several galleries in Cloquet and Duluth, as well as on her website: chairsbykris.com.