Hi Jeffrey, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
When I was going for my art degree at Moorhead State University my ceramics instructor gave us the assignment to make something non-functional. I remembered a time when I was 8 yrs old rolling marbles down trails and tunnels I and my friends built in some huge piles of dirt. For the ceramics project, I hand-built slab pots with holes and trails for balls to run down. It was a lot of fun.
After graduation in 1980, I became a full-time functional potter, supporting my family for 15 years by selling pottery at art shows. Now and then I would build one of my marble trail pots but it never worked very well. Clay shrinks as it dries so the balls sometimes got stuck. Clay also is soft when built and then hard when fired so there was no way to tell how the ball would roll when making it and of course no way to modify it when finished and fired.
One weekend I was sitting at an art show with my pottery and across the aisle was a metal sculptor with a shape similar to the ball sculpture I was working on it was one of those slap-in-the-forehead moments. Just because I’m a potter doesn’t mean I have to work in clay! I already knew how to weld having built my pottery equipment.
After I built a number of these new metal sculptures my wife tried to talk me into showing them at art shows like I was doing with the pottery. I resisted for a while, thinking this was my weird quirk, I’d never seen anything like this before. I thought people would just laugh at me and no one would pay what I would have to ask.
She finally talked me into it when in 1993 we were helping with an art show here in Fergus Falls and we needed more artists. It turned out to be quite fun showing what I was doing to my friends and community. The second show I did was small in Minneapolis and I sold a couple of sculptures! The third show I got into was the prestigious Smithsonian Craft Show in Washington DC. and things took off.
In 6 months, I no longer had time to do any pottery. Since then it’s been pretty much non-stop. I live an artist’s dream with collectors and installations worldwide. While I could sell my work through galleries I prefer to sell through art shows where I can meet and talk with the viewers and collectors myself. I love to watch people newly exposed to my sculptures.
I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle free, but so far would you say the journey have been a fairly smooth road?
I have been very fortunate that my success has had very few stumbles or struggles.
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
Ever since I was a child, I have worked on mechanical devices and kinetic sculptures. I find fascination in mechanical movements of almost any kind. With a blend of old and new materials, physics, and art, my work pulls out the memories and experiences of the viewer’s childhood and brings them back to that time.
Watching the viewer, this transformation is usually apparent. As children, people are more at ease, adult tensions drop away, and they are more open to laughing, pointing, and talking with strangers. After watching the sculpture for a while, stand back and watch the people near you. Welcome to my childhood.
I make kinetic sculptures from stainless steel and found metal and glass balls. The movement is started with a battery-powered motor, then gravity takes over. I am fortunate that I’m one of only a handful of people worldwide that makes this type of sculpture.
Networking and finding a mentor can have a positive impact on one’s life and career. Any advice?
I had the unique situation that I didn’t have a mentor for the sculpture I am doing. I found I needed to correlate what I wanted to learn to other fields. I did a lot of reading and study on metal fabrication methods. Networking has been through getting to know other artists at art shows.
Pricing:
The sculptures I bring to my shows vary in price from $4,000. to $17,000.
The sculptures that are commissioned can be much bigger
Contact Info:
Website: Zachmann.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jeff.zachmann/