Another part of his contributions, of course, is the 16-foot cast bronze sculpture perched on the edge of the main quad on the UM campus.

“I have never known art at Montevallo without Ted Metz,” Stephens said. “He has been so instrumental in forming what I know as the department of the arts at Montevallo. He has been instrumental in making us who we are, and I think we are a great department.”

The early years

As a child, Metz enjoyed physical activities––building forts, taking things apart, building erector sets and anything else he could tinker with.

Even so, Metz didn’t know until college he would pursue a career in sculpture.

“I was very worried about my future in high school because I didn’t know what I wanted to do,” he said.

With advice from his guidance counselor to go to college, Metz started out in business at Old Dominion.

“This was the height of the Vietnam War, and I was floundering in college because I didn’t know what I wanted to do,” he said. “I thought I might join the service. I felt like I was wasting college if I just stayed there.”

Metz took a “battery of tests” and found his aptitudes and interests aligned with engineering, drafting, sociology, art and forestry fields.

He took a class in all of these areas.

“After just two weeks, it felt like I was home when I was in the art class,” Metz said. “I knew that’s where I needed to be. I didn’t know if I had any talent or not, but knew I was able to connect with these people.”

Metz said he was inspired by his classmates’ commitment to their work, evident in the long hours they logged of their own accord, and he connected with the creative nature of the class and assignments.

“The emphasis was on tapping into who you were creatively,” he said. “It was all new (to me).”

Metz credited the Old Dominion staff and students in the art department for being supportive of each other.

“Art is a lot of hard work and demands a great amount of commitment on learning skills and processes and developing creative potential,” Metz said. “It becomes a very serious course of study.”

His first art class was a 2D design class, followed by 3D design, essentially an introduction to sculpture.

“I came naturally to sculpture,” Metz said. “I’m a builder of things. I like materials. What I realized in that class is there are several major areas of art.”

A sculptor named Victor Pickett became a mentor for Metz for nearly two years of his college career.

“He acknowledged my passion for sculpture and invited me to work in his personal studio, which was an amazing opportunity,” Metz said. “I credit him with my professional success related to art. He’s a teacher that I would like to be to my students.”

In 1971, Metz started graduate school in South Carolina, where he continued his work in sculpture and worked on a minor in ceramics.

He was in the first class of students who had the option of earning a master of fine arts at the university.

Metz said selling his pieces has never been his motivation to create and construct, and he is “notoriously bad at marketing.”

“I’ve been blessed to have a job as a faculty member, so I’ve never made art with the thought that I have to sell it, which is nice,” he said. “I feel like I can take creative chances. I’m not trying to please any particular person except for myself.”