Jason McLean
Jason McLean; artist, mechanic, lumberman, rancher, horseman, farmer, mysteryman. From the hilltop where Jason's home sits you can see a small kingdom. There is tilled land by the creek where a neighbor farms the land for half the crop. Over and down to the left are the horses who graze amidst giant steel sculptures. And there off to the West you see mountains of windfall redwood timber that await milling.
Jason's shop is here too. One giant P.A. speaker rips out White Zombie while the press crunches more rods for CD racks. So little time for so much work.
All this so fast. From age eleven he was welding. Before he could drive he was fixing and trading cars for better cars. He made gates and then functional crafts. DELIA met Jason in 1991 and the two struck a deal. But the story does not end here. It continues on that hilltop, with Jason in his studio; working, planning and building. So little time, so much to do.
Kendall Lecompte
I'm asked to prepare a bio, an artist's statement. Now frankly, I'm
not too happy doing such things: taking a view that the work should
be the reason you buy, not the pedigree of the builder. Still, I keep
getting these emails from Delia.
Perhaps you can be of help to me. Stop reading and take a look around
your room. What do you see? I'd wager that straight lines are what
you see. But if you now look out your window, I'm thinking that it's
the curve of trees you see, or the arches of cloud. My third thought
would be that you like looking outside more than you like staring
at your walls. That sums it up for me: we live our lives in a structured
world, but prefer a natural one.
Doubtful? Another bit of help please. Imagine that happy place that
doctors and tax attorney are always talking about. Yep: beach forest,
mountain, stream, ocean. Not a happy angle to be found.
And that's why I build as I do. The first thing done when i build
a piece is to take straight metal and work it into some movement.
I tremble it, trying to the non-organic steel to take the form of
an organic material. From there, the table or music stand easily takes
its shape as twigs, brambles, or reads. Of course I do use straight
lines, but only when necessary for a table top or a telescoping tube.
We bounce around between corners and right angles enough without my
adding to it.
Now before I get mail suggesting the hypocrisy of designing an Ionic
table with its more classical lines, may I suggest that such work
is sympathetic with my design idea. Twigs and reeds are after all,
a return to more elemental life. The classical forms of Greece are
found on the way there. A naos in Greece is a bus stop on the way
home to the glen.
I'm thinking that covers artist's statement. Now on to the bio part.
Here's what I want you to know about me. Last month I had the money
to replace my 18 year old television with a new flat panel, or to
go see a total eclipse in Kastellorizo, Greece. I was a mile away
and 600 meters above the town when the sun entered totality. I could
hear the gasp from the shore.
Kendall LeCompte
Summer 2006
www.kendalllecompte.com
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Ivan McLean
Ivan McLean and wife Michelle Bressler live in Portland, Oregon with their three young daughters, Celia Rose age 7, Anna Grace age 5, and 2 year old Molly Shea. Though born in neighboring California, Ivan went the long way to Portland.
During high school he picked up welding working several cattle ranches nearby the family home in Point Reyes, California. Ivan attended college at Cal Poly located in San Luis Obispo, California and received a BS in Farm Management. He then enlisted in the Peace Corps and was sent to Zamboanga City, Philippines. After a year or two of duty, Ivan went west to 700,000 acres of Australian sheep ranching. But he soon tired of sheep and headed back to America and the girl he met in the Philippines.
Back in Point Reyes, Ivan began making a living of metal work. With his self taught welding skills, he sold gates and functional objects and now realized he had a talent for the art object, selling sculptures and other decorative pieces. At this same time Michelle studied, Ivan worked. He discovered marble sculpture. An artform he still practices with great passion today. But for Delia what matters here is that for the first time his designs had the potential to be sold as production pieces. The Critter and other cut out candleholders you see today are descendants of this time.
With her degree completed, Michelle and Ivan once again moved, this time to Greenwood Mississippi. It was the start of fruitful times for the McLeans. They married and soon after arrived their first two daughters. It was also at this time that Ivan began working with Cedanna Design Group. Now in league with his brother Jason and a handful of other Bay Area artists things started to happen. Ivan started to create one new good design after another and with the success of CDG the two were growing quickly, culminating in the birth of his all time best seller, the Menorah with Figures.
In 1996, desiring to return closer to Michelle's family in Portland, the McLeans formed their own personal eighteen wheeler convoy and moved West. Ivan set up shop on the North side of town and the family nestled into a home which on a clear day offers views all the way to Mt. Rainier. The move did not slow Ivan for long. Soon he had another daughter and there was a noticeable change in his work.
Perhaps it is the maturation process. Or maybe Ivan's work with marble sculpture had an affect. But no longer were his designs purely figurative cutouts. Out came the Wine Arch, Freestanding Bookcase, the Tesla Coatstand and most recently the Wine Spine. This was new. Yes, Ivan is still a virtual master with a torch and can cut with the best, as the new Cat and Dog Stands attest, but they are now the exception not the rule as Ivan is now producing far more sculptural pieces than cutouts. But this is the nature of Ivan McLean. Not finding much peace with objects at rest, he stays in motion for the sake of moving. This is what seems to keep him going.
Meanwhile those girls are growing quickly. The house has a new basement floor and Delia just faxed wanting 50 more.
Part II ...a little later
Ivan is not here. He's in L.A. filming for Junkyard Wars. The family is with him. Yesterday they went to Disney Land. Right now things are pretty good.
That house on the hill that overlooks most of the city and well into neighboring Washington keeps getting nicer and nicer. The girls are getting bigger and smarter. And the work keeps coming.
The theme of the moment is Mission. Not unique but done in his own way. Solid. Big Welds and warmly functional. Oh, and he learned to make spirals. Its all quite good.
So the story remains the same. Busy as ant making a mighty little empire.
"Keep Clear!!!!! Man, coming through"
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