How refreshing to meet a sculptor with a sense of humor that shines through his artwork like a beacon. Wood working is his specialty, but he is a man of many trades and skills. Jared Hadfield will have a solo exhibition of his sculpture and functional art at the South Shore Art Center from September 12 to October 25.
Hadfield’s sculpture follows in the tradition of two towering American artists, Claes Oldenburg and Louise Nevelson. Like Oldenburg, he creates icons that relate to contemporary life with a bit of humor. Like Nevelson he uses “found” wood, stains it and assembles it into sculptural forms. But the results are his own unique pieces. And unlike them, he also creates modern art-furniture, an activity that blends with the skills needed for his house restoration career, which in turn provides the income to produce his art. A perfect circle.
I talked with Hadfield on a beautiful August morning and discovered an artisan who has literally built a life for himself, his wife and children. He designed and built his studio adjacent to his home in Marshfield, and it is a sculptor’s dream complete with every tool for woodworking, a room for sculpture-display and upstairs quarters. As we talked about his art, his children played with toys, climbed around his large wood pieces and fed the caged baby chicks.
Hadfield is a true mid-westerner, born in Wisconsin in 1978 and raised in Kansas where he studied sculpture at the University of Kansas. Shifting his life to the east coast, he studied architecture at Boston Architectural College.