Trees to be living signs of Pittsburgh artist John Metzler

Last Sunday at noon in Allegheny Commons Park, otherwise known as West Park in the North Side, some 200 people gathered to plant a tree in honor of one man, John Metzler.

Metzler, the founder of Urban Tree Forge and its lead artist, tragically passed on May 13, after being struck by a U-Haul trailer outside of his shop on Washington Boulevard in Lincoln-Lemington.

The event was organized by his girlfriend, artist Randie Snow, and his daughter, Chelsea, who coordinated the tree planting with Danielle Crumrine of Friends of the Pittsburgh Urban Forest, a nonprofit dedicated to restoring and protecting trees in the city.

West Park was John's favorite city park. Upon arrival to the tree planting memorial service, guests were given their own seedling trees to plant in Metzler's memory.

According to Joey Kennedy, a photographer who documented the event, "The ceremony ... was beautiful in song, spoken word and spirit. This unwanted circumstance has brought so many of my friends closer together — a time of bonding and friendship."

As this event bore witness, John Metzler's passing has been extremely painful to all who knew him, myself included. I remember John as one of the few artists who would always be quick to come up to me at an opening reception or some other local art-world happening with an affable smile, hearty handshake and honest, yet simple, query, "What's new with you?"

What I got from such a simple courtesy was something more. Metzler embodied a sense of community like no other artist I've met, aside from the late James Church, an equally affable fellow who shared in Metzler's ability to rally like-minded folks around him.

Metzler and his Urban Tree Forge turned wood salvaged from Pittsburgh neighborhoods into sustainable, green, building materials and inventive custom furniture. He believed that reusing city trees removed for power lines and other reasons not only helped keep history alive, it helped us to sustain a healthy environment. "It reduces our carbon footprint, lessens our dependence on wood from national forests, and keeps natural resources local," reads the mission statement on his website.

As with Church, who died unexpectedly Dec. 26, 2005, also at the age of 46, Metzler was memorialized in a way that only a small arts community like Pittsburgh's can. That is with pure, heartfelt attention combined with a collective need to honor one of their own.

"Know trees, know life," Metzler once said. And so, planting a tree in his memory was much more than an act of remembrance, it was an act of reverence.