Features Reporter
Courtesy photo by: Jacob Thaden
Jacob Thaden doesn’t look like the tortured, eccentric soul some typically associate with artists. He is dressed in Carhart overalls, their thick fabric covered with smudges of dark, greasy black. His hands aren’t spattered with paint or clay, but rather embedded with lines of oil, the product of his full-time job at Barney Brother’s Offroad in Grand Junction.
He is quiet, tall and thin. All around his apartment, ceramic sculptures with personalities all their own slowly manifest and catch the eye. But a few of his favorite pieces are missing.
A 2011 CMU Fine Arts graduate, Thaden was chosen among 159 other Colorado artists to feature his work in a statewide showcase in Arvada: Art of the State: a Juried Exhibition of Colorado. Over 1,500 entries were submitted in November, and only 191 were selected for the show, Thaden’s work among them.
His pieces mix the organic feel of clay with hard, industrial aspects like sheet metal, rivets, bolts and welds.
“You should be able to see the components, see how it’s put together,” Thaden said. “Everything has to have its own personality.”
Thaden’s love of machines—cars, bikes, guns and even sewing machines—is evident in his sculptures.
“I’ve been building things my entire life,” Thaden said. “With clay, I like the processes of assembly and construction, whether it’s thrown or in slabs.”
According to Jake Allee, Associate Professor of Art at CMU, ceramics differs from other forms of sculpture in that its history runs parallel to that of humanity.
“Ceramics is rooted in history in a different manner,” Allee said. “Looking at anthropology for instance, clay sculptures are usually the first sign of technology in any given culture.”
Unlike many ceramic sculptors, Thaden likes to emphasize what others prefer to hide: instead of masking the seams where two pieces of clay meet, he highlights these important junctures with handmade rivets and bold lines.
It is this originality and attention to detail that helped Thaden beat out 587 other applicants for the Art of the State show.
“My mother actually encouraged me to enter,” Thaden said, in reference to the long line of artists from which he stems. His grandmother, Patty Hawkins, of Estes Park, was also selected to participate in Art of the State because of her work in fiber arts.
“It’s cool that I’ve been in several shows with my mom, but this is the first with my grandma,” Thaden said.
Thaden’s work is also currently featured at a show in Breckenridge and at the Blue Pig in Palisade. His work serves to futher illustrate the talent to be found at CMU and the original artwork that can be seen all across the Grand Valley and throughout the state of Colorado.
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