Photograph by Thomas Crone
Unquestionably, we’re in the season in which artists emerge from their workshops to meet-and-greet the public. Holiday sales, both great and small, bring creator and consumer together in happy unison. Last weekend was a busy one for Jen Bradford, even with a Friday afternoon event at the Venice Cafe postponed due to the week’s frightful weather. On a still-brisk Saturday afternoon, she was found at Apop Records, selling her Narcise jewelry line to the interested parties walking the neighborhood as part of the Cherokee Print League annual arts walk.
There, her wares were set up next to those of her friend Priscilla Meinz, she of Priscilla’s Portable Jewelry Shop. On Saturday, December 14, the Happy Hourtesania Art Sale returns to the Venice Cafe, for a 4 to 8 p.m. run, with both Meinz and Bradford taking part. In total, around a half dozen artists will set up shop in the friendly confines of the Venice’s music “stage” area, selling everything from glass-encased typewriter parts to photography of abandoned buildings. Assumedly, weather will be more cooperative with this week’s event.
For our first out installment of what projects as an every-other-weekly discussion with local artists (featuring the same seven questions), we digitally chat with Bradford, who was both quick and expansive with her thoughts on her process and motivations.
Art school? Self-taught? Some variety of both? Or none of the above?
I played around in the junior college version of art school for a couple of years after high school, nominally studying sculpture, but mostly studying Frisbee and happy hour, until my dad finally prevailed upon me to go to big-kid college. In the intervening years I've taken classes in jewelry design and small metals fabrication at several colleges and fine art/fine craft schools and cobbled together something like an arts education. Moreover, my parents are creative types and growing up in their shop, with access to their knowledge, encouragement and equipment was far and away the best creative education I could have asked for. The rest is just technique.
Regarding your creative habits, are you a night owl or an early bird?
I'm a total early bird. It's my dirty little secret. If I know that I've got a clear calendar and a full day in the studio ahead of me, I'm like a kid on Christmas Eve! I actually have trouble making myself go to sleep because I am so excited to get up and at it in the morning! That being said, I often work in the evenings and it's not at all uncommon for me to lose track of time and find myself at the bench at midnight or beyond.
In basic terms, can you describe the set-up and vibe of your studio?
I have a full wood shop with a handful of lathes of varying sizes and the usual assortment of saws, sanders, planers, etc. I also have an electrochemical station with various tanks of serious-looking chemicals and wires and whatnot that I use for etching and electroforming. My hot bench is pretty standard, with a couple of torches, ring stands, third arm, pickle pot, enameling equipment and supplies, etc. I also have a pretty sizable collection of metal fabrication equipment, along with all the usual hand tools. I'm actually having the space re-wired as we speak to accommodate a big industrial compressor that'll power my new planishing forge. I'm so stinking excited for that! Of all the equipment in my shop right now (and my gosh, there sure seems to be a lot of it!), my most prized possession is my papa's old blacksmith's anvil. This beast is at least a hundred years old, and weighs close to 200 pounds. One of my winter projects is to clean that baby up and put a mirror finish on the horn and actually start using it as my production anvil. The vibe is… no idea, honestly. There's usually very loud music, very loud equipment, dubious ventilation and me in a respirator and overalls. Hmmm, I'm not painting a pretty picture here...
What are your thoughts on crowd-funding for the arts? And is that option any part of your own approach to creating and selling work?
I think crowd-funding in general is brilliant. I love the democracy of it, and the potential it offers for producers to take their product directly to the public. This is the sort of answer that invariably gets me in trouble, but I'll go ahead and admit that I don't particularly see art as being different from any other product. I also consider myself more of a craftsperson or an artisan than an artist, for what that's worth. I could certainly see using a platform like Kickstarter or Indiegogo at some point. In fact, in retrospect it would have been a smart option for funding the Alice series that I currently have in production.
Do you have a dream project that lacks only funding (or time)?
Yes, my dream project that currently lacks funding and time is building myself a little studio somewhere in the Caribbean where they've never seen snow. I'll be happy to field any and all inquiries from potential investors and co-conspirators. More seriously, though, I think the thing that I mostly lack is the time that I'd like to spend on more advanced training outside the St. Louis area. It's always terrific to get out of your element and immerse yourself in learning and exploring new techniques.
To what degree do you enjoy having public contact, whether that means selling your work at a fair, a gallery opening, etc.?
I have a love/fear relationship with public contact. When it's at an art fair and I'm able to actually talk to my customers about the materials and techniques, I'm thrilled. When I do studio tours for students and am able to demonstrate and have them get hands-on, I'm absolutely in heaven. When it comes to a gallery event where my only job is to… um? See, there's the problem. What the hell is my job in those situations? As long as I'm in a situation where I have my product or my tools and materials to predicate my interaction with the public, I enjoy myself.
What other St. Louis artists inspire or motivate you?
There are so many people doing such rad things all over the place here that the whole scene is just super inspirational, but Craig Downs is kind of my mentor in terms of just being willing to bust ass and hustle to get work out there. He's terrific at the whole 360 from conceptualizing his art to embedding it into his community and nailing the commercial side of it, as well. Love that guy!
For more info: narcise.net.
