Jake James: Blacksmith
Artist Statement

Jake is a formally trained blacksmith, originally from the UK. He studied at the Hereford School of Technology and apprenticed under a Master Blacksmith, before taking his skills around the world as a journeyman smith.
He moved to Vancouver Island in 2003 and has been forging there since then. He undertakes commissioned works, creates private and public artwork and teaches forging and sculpture both here at home and internationally.

Jakes’s work is driven primarily by two factors, both of which are responsive influences, much as iron is itself a responsive material to work.

One is a deeply self-referential homage to the practice of moving hot iron: form follows technique, which then influences further development of form. The processes used to create his work are all translated from the training of his craft. Metal is heated to over thousand degrees and then hammered into the shapes desired. While the metal is this heated semi-solid state, it becomes an almost living thing, and Jake seeks to capture this moment of life in his finished works. Figures that are frozen in motion but seem like they could leap from their pedestals or organic forms that could blow away in the wind.

The second factor is a personal reply to my environment, be that emotional, political, or geographical. This reply is driven by narrative, and Jake will often draw on mythological or fantastical inspiration to tell a story. His work expresses emotion; creatures forged in the imagination telling stories we all carry and asking the viewer to question what drives us to experience such feeling in our own lives.