Addicted to Art

After driving in from hectic downtown Minneapolis and sitting down for coffee with Constance Mayeron Cowles and Charles Fuller Cowles, you can see why they abandoned urban living. On a sunny morning at their home in Franconia Township near Taylors Falls, you can see a long stretch of grass and trees and the air is fresh and clean. For the two artists—Fuller is a sculptor and Connee a ceramist—the open space is inspiring. 

But after a walk through their stunning custom home, the view is almost secondary. “The rooms were built for feeling instead of how they look,” Connee says. “It’s much more important how the rooms feel and how they impact us.”

Originally, the house was built as a living-space studio. It had a bachelor-type kitchen and wasn’t user-friendly for a family. For the most part, Fuller worked there and their two sons played in the yard after school. Serious renovations reorganized the living space.

Inside, nearly every room includes creative tiling by Connee. Fuller created many of the tables, and the couple collaborated on the chandeliers and a few other pieces. “We’re addicted to art,” they both say, adding that they tend to work seven days a week, taking breaks from the studio for daily walks or bike rides along the St. Croix River. The pair travels a lot and occasionally rents a place in New York, where they work and explore different mediums. Trying to gain new experiences keeps them on the move, but with such a retreat for a home it’s hard to see why they’d ever want to leave.

Country Mice  
Before moving to the country, they raised their sons in an old converted fire station in St. Paul. When they decided to trade-in city life, they bought the farm next door to Fuller’s parents—John and Sage Cowles—and built the home and studio, complete with huge gas kilns. “Country life is much more conducive to lifestyle and work,” Connee says. Now that the couple has become accustomed to rural ways, they thrive on the fresh, invigorating landscape and summer gardens. Even if they have a show or event in the Twin Cities, they always drive back when it’s over. Says Fuller, “We want to wake up here.” 

Close Quarters  
While the idea of living next door to your in-laws is unfathomable to some, Connee and Fuller say it works because John and Sage are such unusual people. They too keep independent lives and assure that saying no to dinner together won’t start a family feud.

Dinner Parties  
Cooking is a joint venture in the kitchen, outfitted with two dishwashers and two sinks, which allows people to multitask—cutting flowers, preparing food—and clean up without bumping into each other. Sometimes they host museum-collectors tours of fifty people, so there’s a casual, spontaneous vibe to dining.

Bed and Breakfast  
For the working artists, part of the allure of being isolated is having no interruptions: “Neighbors don’t stop by and chat.” Instead, friends just stay for the weekend and settle in.

Collaboration in Construction  
“It was a collaboration, one between husband and wife, architect and client, designer with designer, all weaving in and out of a visual conversation with us and with our builder, who is also an architect and works as one with his crew,” Connee says, calling the chemistry magical. The team included designer Troy Kampa, designer/builder Jonathan Query, his “crew,” firm IIIAD, as well as designers Laura Ramsey Engler and Mary Jane Pappas, who held brainstorming sessions with Connee for the kitchen. “It was a most invigorating atmosphere while building, not unlike making a piece of art,” she says.