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Pahlas grew up in his parents' blacksmith studio in Ripon where he became spellbound by the material and processes involved in metal fabrication and forge work. He states that he was raised in an artistic family that goes back five generations. "From professional painters/illustrators, musicians and blacksmiths on my mother's side (the Armstrong clan) to jewelers, clock makers· and authors on my father's side (the Pahlas clan) we have
all dipped more than our toes into the creative stream and found our true calling therein," Pahlas noted.
By the age of twelve Pahlas was welding with his father Kim in the family business called Metalworks. He remembers their kitchen table being used by his mother Ann as a drafting table. He states that she would sit down in the morning with a roll of paper and by dinner she had a "gorgeous line drawing of the next beautiful project for my father to weld and hammer out in the studio." Pahlas graduated from Ripon High School and received a BFA with an emphasis in sculpture from UW-Oshkosh. He met his wife, Heidi Clayton, at UW-0 and they now run Center Ground Studios in Mt WI where they specialize in custom steel sculpture and pottery.