Tulsa Man Builds Art From Metal, Loves The Challenge

You would expect there to be art in the Tulsa Arts District, but a viewer alerted us to some art in an unexpected place, on the roof of the JA Manufacturing building at the corner of Archer and Denver.

The sign on the building said JA Manufacturing, but what’s being manufactured there is whatever Jack Alexander sets his mind to.

There are two pieces on the building’s roof, they rotate and are lighted at night.

Jack Alexander retired 20 years ago, sold his business, and kept the building. On Tuesday nights, him and friends gather there to play music.

He spends a lot of time looking for things to do.

“You take a sheet of metal about the size of that door, and turn it into something sort of artistic, using all of it, not throwing any of it away,” Alexander said.

Alexander has several pieces he’s created using that concept as a challenge.

Several pieces he’s given to friends, and his office workshop is full of them, but he’s reluctant to call any of it art.

“I never sold anything,” Alexander said.