Clarksville, TN – There is a gallery/studio in town that is like no other. When you walk in, you’ll see a seemingly normal selection of antiques, but you’ll quickly notice an unusual collection of items – a piece of railroad track that says Tennessee Rail on it, part of a weather vane, a decorative piece carved out of some black walnut that Steve Tyrrell found in the river.
As you walk around the 12,000 sf space, Tyrrell points out some interesting creations. “Over here, I have some big items,” Tyrrell said. “There is some airplane stuff, like a DC-3 jet intake – the top is a replica of a P-51 Mustang from WWII. That’s the original Pistoleros nose art from the plane. That plane shot down 23 planes. I replicated it from a Beechcraft plane and it’s about to scale. The bottom piece is the DC-3 jet intake with a floating glass top. It’s not done yet. I’m going to countersink .50 cal machine gun bullets through the top to attach it.”
Tyrrell tries to figure out the best use of any piece, “I’m like, what can I do with it to keep it from going to the dump,” He said. “I always wanted to be a jet pilot, but I broke all the bones in my ear, and I couldn’t pass the test. I love stuff that goes fast, the faster it goes the more I like it.”
That sense of speed and size and power are all captured in his “industrial” art. While most of the items in the studio area are mid-century modern antiques, on which he and his partner Jody Isaacs built downtown’s Journey’s Eye Studio. Tyrrell’s unique creations keep him busy with work in Clarksville, Nashville, and the surrounding areas.
“People missed Journey’s Eye on Franklin Street, so we recreated it here in a much bigger space,” Tyrrell said. “The main gallery is 8,000 sf. and then my workspace is another 3,000 – 4,000 sf. Right now, we open the studio area once a month, the first Saturday of each month.”
When you walk into Tyrrell’s shop area, you’ll see things like a ’53 Triumph motorcycle project that he’s working on. He has a paint booth where he paints larger items. There is a ’43 Willy’s Jeep made by Ford that he’s turning into a resto-mod. There is a giant sign from a Nashville warehouse that was used on the TV show Nashville. There is also an old pedal car that he wants to turn into a bar and an entry ladder from a WWII jet that he wants to turn into whiskey shelves. He plans to make a bar top out of an airplane wing.
Tyrrell started doing this sort of thing professionally about twelve years ago, prior to that he was a home builder. Before that, he was an electrician, and prior to all that, he ran ski resorts in Stowe, Vermont.
“I ran out of money for college, so I went to Alaska and became a commercial fisherman,” Tyrrell said. “After Alaska, I took my passion job in the ski industry.” He also ran a tennis club. When he had a child, he realized that his job was more of a lifestyle than a profession, taking as much as 100 hours a week. He decided, “That’s no way to raise a child,” so he ended up moving to Boston, where he became an electrician.
Tyrrell has an independent streak, saying, “If I have five bad days in a row, I’m out of there. We work the majority of our lives so you damn sure better love your job. If not, you’re going to lead a pretty miserable life.”
His dad was a machinist who built hot rods. Tyrrell says he grew up as free labor. He was stripping parts in junkyards by the age of 8. He developed a love for European cars. He built his own cars and eventually raced BMW’s. At some point, his garage space was filled with leftover car parts. He didn’t want to throw them away, so he started re-purposing them into light fixtures and other things and giving them away as Christmas gifts.
“It just kind of took off,” Tyrrell said. “Jody had two stores up in Boston. She put a few of my pieces in her store, but I couldn’t keep up with the demand. Years later, the kids were off to college, and we wanted to move down south, so we did our research and ended up here. We were planning to move to Nashville, but apparently, so was everyone else around that time. That was during that huge Nashville boom.
“We came to Clarksville to visit my brother, who is retired military. He bought us downtown, and we fell in love with it. We pretty much bought a building that night, and as soon as we made the move to Tennessee, we opened Journey’s Eye Studio. Eventually, Jody opened the Clarksville Collection. This business is called In House Customs. We’re open to the public the first Saturday of each month, which gives us plenty of room for me to do cars, furniture, sculpture, etc.”
In-House Customs is located at 720 Red River Street. “This part of town is about to blow up, with all the planned development,” Tyrrell said. “I hope Clarksville turns this into another fine art, industrial art area.
“Industrial art is mostly sculptural. I try to recycle steel into art pieces. I use car parts and other things. I call it functional art. I won’t build anything that I’ve seen others doing. I always try to take creativity to another level, and I let each piece speak to me. These pieces could be at home in an outhouse or a penthouse in Manhattan. I always try to add a little flair.
“I do some sketching, but that makes me feel confined. I pretty much build from the ground up, and I make it up as I go. I have an idea in my head, but it changes many times as I’m going along. I do a lot of commissions. Usually, somebody wants something for their house. Now, I primarily do statement pieces. I’m not going to come over and build a deck at your house. It’s mostly commercial work, 90% of my stuff goes to bars, restaurant and distilleries.”
You can see examples of Tyrrell’s work in Strawberry Alley Ale Works, where he created all three bars and all the custom lighting. He also did the Mailroom’s custom lighting.
“At the time, I was too busy to do other things for them,” Tyrrell said. “I just finished working on Old Glory Distilling Co. They built a phenomenal restaurant out there. I did all the custom lighting, about 28 fixtures. The smallest one was 4′ x 6′. I love working with the Cunninghams. They know what they want and have excellent taste.
“I had time. I knew what they wanted, so I started that project early. I spent about three months working on them. It took about a week to do the installation. I’ve done a lot of stuff for bars in downtown Nashville, too, but I prefer to work here. I love Clarksville. We’ve been here for twelve years. We came here and fell in love with the people. We’ve got the rivers and Lake Barkley. It’s just a great location. And there is so much opportunity here. We knew the city was going to boom, but it has been even bigger than we imagined.”
Tyrrell says anybody can afford a custom piece. ”The conversation always starts with, give me a budget and tell me what you’re thinking. I’ve done pieces from $100 – $8,000, and as far as ideas go, the crazier the better! I love to get into other people’s heads and figure out what they want. That’s the fun part. All this big box store stuff looks the same. So many people have a vision of what they want but not the ability to create it. That’s where I come in.
“I tour the property to see the space, then I ask, if there was a fire in your house what three things would you try to save, other than animals and family members. That’s when you see what they love. That makes the job so much easier. You see the things they really love and then you see the rest of the house, and many times there is no cohesion there.
“When you walk into our house it looks like a mid-century modern showroom, there is art everywhere. Everything in there, from the furnishings to the fine art, we have a personal connection to, much of it created by myself or friends of ours.”
Get in touch at Stevetyrrell1970@gmail.com, call 617.852.2054 or find him on social media at In House Customs or Clarksville Collection. Or just stop by the shop. Tyrrell is usually there Wednesday – Sunday until 4:00pm.
