The first thing that struck me when I walked into the Blackwell Gallery in downtown Coeur d’Alene was the craftsmanship of a metalwork fish. With bones made of brass fittings and pipes, tails of antique salad tossers, and bodies embellished with household knick-knacks that I couldn’t quite place, each fish was unique and elegant, bound together by the natural fastenings of its parts.
Beside one of the fish was a striking 3-D painting featuring oversized plastic popsicles stained in bright summer colors with ‘sticky’ and ‘sweet’ burned into its wooden popsicle sticks. Above this colorful piece hung an altogether different piece, one featuring an intricate white and black hyperrealism pencil drawing of a man fly-fishing on a river in a Northwest landscape, his line a perfect arc in the air. All of these well-crafted and contrasting works, I was surprised to learn, were created by a single artist — Jason Sanchez.
Visiting with Jason and his wife, Melissa, one afternoon at their home in Coeur d’Alene, I inquired about the creative constraints Jason uses for his very different modalities of art, all of which have observably unique qualities to them, by way of craftsmanship, but also via perspective. Jason confesses he does this to make his work more challenging and interesting for viewers, but also for himself. “The day, as an artist, that you think you’re God, so to speak,” says Jason, “is the day you should just quit — and there are those artists out there — because you’re not.”
“There’s always room to grow. There’s always room to learn. There’s always a way to apply something that you’ve never thought about before, it’s never-ending — and that’s the drive. I always want to do better.”
In application of this philosophy to his metalwork fi sh, Jason could easily bind them together with welding techniques that he’s taught himself, but he prefers to let the weighty fragments of dismantled vacuums, sewing machines or kitchen utensils do some of the work themselves. By forcing himself to make the pieces work together without adjustment, he creates a harmony that may be more organic than were he to simply weld the parts together for convenience.
Within the many modalities that Jason experiments, including painting, hyperrealist drawing, welding, sculpture, bronze work and steel work, he certainly provides himself with abundant creative challenge, and his philosophy to keep pushing the limits is present in everything he does. When he welds, he’ll add lighting displays.
When he draws, he imitates black and white photos. When he paints, he experiments with several genres including 3-D pop-art, modernist, surrealist and hyperrealist influences — often many of Jason’s pieces are a fusion of two genres or more. When creative juices for one genre or modality have run their course, Jason will switch his focus. His creative impulses are, he admits, presently somewhat at the mercy of the North Idaho weather and its impact on his non-insulated garage studio. When winter temperatures creep in, he’ll usually be forced to move inside, often into winter painting mode.
Jason and Melissa kindly toured me through their active home — a casual, understated gallery in and of itself — complete with four kids, four cats and an array of art supplies. With sculptures on the front and back patio, multimedia fusion pieces resting against the walls and paintings mounted throughout their home, I found myself stopping every few feet to take in the sights and collect brief histories on individual pieces. Jason explained to me that one of his composition styles, which makes him quite a rebel in contrast to many other professional artists, is his choice to start his projects — particularly his paintings — with no end in mind. In addition to that, Jason says, “Rather than starting a composition on the perimeter and working my way in, I start from the inside and work my way out, exactly the opposite of how classically trained artists are taught.” This creation method may explain how Jason’s paintings offer such a particular urgency to viewers, who may be arrested by the effect this unique variance can have on a piece. “I start with little parts,” Jason says, “but I build the image. That’s the difference.”
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Many of the pieces I admired in the Sanchez home had hung once before in art galleries around the country. They simply hadn’t sold. Looking back to the paintings in his hallway alone, I was surprised. They seemed too good not to sell. Jason went on to explain that though his work as a professional artist is steady now, times have been lean over the years. This makes his present success as a professional artist a source of real gratitude and pride for himself and his family.
Raised by a single mother who often needed Jason to keep himself entertained, he showed an early interest in art. At 3 years old, he quickly advanced from crayons and coloring books to colored pencils and blank paper. Earning a bachelor’s degree in Architectural Design from Portland State University, Jason intended to large-scale his passion for design, but found that the field was too computer based for him. “No offense to architects,” Jason says, “but I like to actually create. And I felt that at the end of the day I didn’t get to see the tangible thing that I made. Even if I designed it, someone else was making it.” From there, it only took Jason a year or so to decide to get back to the basics of creating with his hands.
Jason will have his work cut out for him over the next eight months, as he has just been awarded a heavily contested bid for public artwork in the heart of downtown Coeur d’Alene. With 109 submitted proposals from artists all over the country, and after being passed over before for large public works in his hometown, Jason is elated at the opportunity to finally put his art in the public eye in a big way. “I’m from here,” says Jason, “and it means a lot to me to represent Coeur d’Alene after seeing the area grow.” His sculpture will feature a 20-foot steel frame modeled after the fluidity of water — a nod to its great influence on the area — and will have a three-foot bronze heart at the top. The heart will be engraved with excerpts from the Idaho State Constitution and the Bill of Rights. Jason will be working steadily on this project over the next 10 months with plans to erect the sculpture at the Fort Grounds Roundabout, with footing and installation support by Ginno Construction, in August 2018.
This large downtown project will mean a lot to Jason professionally, as the sculpture will add to his increasing public artwork presence around the U.S. But it will also mean a great deal to him personally. Jason and his family will be able to buy a larger home. A home that will hopefully feature a sizable insulated workshop to satisfy Jason’s escalating creative passion for outsized sculpture work. With all his modalities, artistic constraints, and styles, Jason still feels like he has artistic growth within him, which certainly begs the question, just what will Jason Sanchez create next? N
By Michelle Cushing
Photography By Joel Riner
As Featured In: Winter/Spring 2018