Owner & Nature Artist, Matt Faupel rescues driftwood, dead trees, and otherwise unwanted woods from flood piles, partner parks & cemeteries, property owners and tree services around Missouri and crafts them into nature-inspired, functional works of art perfectly suited for your space. Missouri Nature Art promotes wise use of resources, such as urban wood, along with respect for nature, the environment and the importance of trees.
Matt started Missouri Nature Art as a nature photography project in 2008, exploring Missouri's natural features and wildlife. He decided to try out selling his work at some local art shows. As a unique way to display some of the prints, he crafted some frames out of driftwood and hollow logs he had found in some of his nature travels. With a background in art and fabrication and a love for nature, woodworking ideas came naturally and Matt quickly expanded into other nature inspired décor such as driftwood lamps, clocks and other small wooden gifts. As the popularity of his imaginative woodworking outgrew his photography, Matt shifted fully and expanded his driftwood creations to include furniture and all types of home décor.
With frequent flooding and an abundance of rivers in the St. Louis region of Missouri, is was fairly easy to find large driftwood piles and even people or organizations who were thankful for someone to help clean it up. Over the years, Matt has discovered many great sources of unwanted wood, many times where it is mutually beneficial to both parties involved to find a higher purpose for the wood and reduce their waste, and has developed many partnerships and relationships with local cemeteries, parks, small governments, local arborists and tree services, and private landowners.
In 2016, after acquiring some large projects, Matt was no longer able to work out of his home shop and moved into a larger studio space at the historic Lemp Brewery. With the additional space and many equipment upgrades, Missouri Nature Art could create many more imaginative and larger projects, at a higher quality. Now Matt offers many custom, specialty woodworking services for residential and commercial spaces, specializing in the use of live edge, driftwood and logs. He continues to sell his own works at art shows, home shows, and other events around Missouri and other states.
Missouri Nature Art remains a small, family business. Matt's wife Stephanie helps with sales, accounting and marketing. His two sons are also developing a love of wood and nature, and love coming to dad's studio to work on their own projects as well as setting up and traveling to shows. Matt enjoys supporting and collaborating with other artisans and craftspeople on some larger projects and various components outside of his own talents needed for projects. Effort is always made to purchase materials Made in the USA.
