Owen Rein was born in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam in 1956. Owen Rein moved to Arkansas for specific reasons: the oaks and hickories that grow here and being able to live without much money or too many rules and restrictions. Back East he had a struggle getting started. To economize, he and his wife lived in a tent while building their first 7-by14-foot cabin for under $600. They were squatters. Their second cabin was bigger and they realized that the earlier experience not only eliminated their bills, but also with jobs, enabled them to save $25,000 over a three-year period.
During that time Rein was already making furniture. What he made was expensive to produce, requiring power tools, materials, a big shop, overhead and capital. The "Fox Fire" books of the '70s gave him the idea that he could make a chair with hand tools with minimum overhead as long as he had direct access to materials. He picked chairs because, like tires, everybody needs them. His original plan was simple, make and sell one chair a week for $75 and there would be enough to live on. He also felt that within these limitations he could do superior work. "I don't go for rustic at all," he said. "First and foremost I am trying to make a good chair. I think of my chairs as being sophisticated."
Alan DuBois, Curator of Decorative Arts
Arkansas: Year of American Craft 1993 exhibition catalogue