A recent article published in the Wednesday, July 7, 2004 edition of the Wall Street Journal features Dorsey attorney Robert Josten''s folk art-themed office. Josten displays numerous furnishings and other pieces radiating home-grown patriotism.
Civic pride. This municipal-bond counsel is so rooted in the communities he serves, he commissioned office furnishings made of driftwood found along the rivers that run through them. Chairs are crafted from natural logs and painted with vivid scenes of Des Moines, including the state capitol building and performing arts center. A side table and box on his desk show farmland, with red barns in fields of corn -- and plenty of stars and stripes.
The homespun images "really speak to me," says Mr. Josten, 62, a partner in the Minneapolis-based law firm's public-finance group. "The artists create patriotic themes, and I like them." Indeed, folk art throughout his traditional corner office depicts bald eagles, purple mountains and Old Glory, accompanied by aphorisms like "Work hard" and "Form opinion." The words "freedom" and "liberty" are stitched on a quilt. A pictorial timeline of American history goes up the sides of a grandfather clock. The furniture and many of the artworks, including a parking meter decorated with his favorite "Bobisms," are made by Sticks Inc., a local company. (One example: Stop in the Name of Bob.)
Almost all of the pieces here were produced by Iowa artists, though some of the subjects are exotic. Shore birds are cobbled together with found objects, such as discarded brushes for plumage. An elephant sculpture has a gramophone horn for a trunk. A snake has a copper-wire tongue. With more than 60 works, Mr. Josten is forced to be selective. So in addition to rotating art, he spends more than a few nonbillable hours changing his exhibit for each season.
What he sees: "A booster. Iowa isn't growing, and it hasn't been for decades. I see my role as trying to help the next generation have a place they're going to want to stay in. What I should have on these walls are samples of bonds displayed in gold-leaf frames, but I want to look at other things to stimulate the creative side of me. I deal with mounds of paperwork, so I surround myself with color. The folk art offsets the rather mundane and very serious nature of what I do every day."