We recently connected with Jasper Johns and have shared our conversation below.
Jasper, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Was there an experience or lesson you learned at a previous job that’s benefited your career afterwards?
I’ve learned from experience the importance of hiring well. As a student, this was brought to my attention in a lecture I watched by Robert Davidson called “Being Successful is No Accident.” He tells an anecdote about a commission he had with three apprentices that took three weeks to hollow the back on a fifty foot totem pole. Years later, he found someone who could do that job in two days. The point is to hire people because you know they have certain talents and that these talents will free you to use your time and creativity elsewhere. For artists, it can be difficult to relinquish steps of production to an assistant or expert because we may feel emotionally attached to the project. But in order to maximize productivity and meet the demands of our business, this is often necessary. It’s not just about finding assistants who get tasks done fast and well, but about working with people who bring special skills that can advance your business. Ceramics is a technical craft. Glaze in particular requires deep knowledge of the medium and its chemistry. I’ve had jobs where I’m the person with the technical knowledge, employed to research and develop the material so the artist or creative director can implement their vision. Were I not doing that work, the director would have to spend hours testing materials. In fact, my talent for this research has created new possibilities for the company’s product beyond what would be conceivable by one person alone. Running a small business as an artist encompasses the same departments you would find in a large corporation: marketing, R&D, accounting, etc. But artists rarely have the skill or time for all these tasks. Invest in employees and contractors, you can’t do it all.
Jasper, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?
After graduating from school with a degree in Ceramics, I founded a brand with my partner, Francisco Rocha, called Studio FraJas. We make handcrafted ceramic objects distinguished by their elaborate glaze patterns and whimsical shapes. Francisco was raised in San Luis Potosí, México, and studied Painting while I grew up in Ann Arbor, Michigan. I construct the forms out of clay, employing my training as a potter and sculptor. Francisco then designs custom patterns for the forms, sketching directly on them and painting with homemade glazes that I develop. Our work combines our talents and heritages to imagine a cultural synthesis between lineages of Mexican ornamentation and European medieval vessels. We make one of a kind, decorative objects as well as collaborate with interior designers on custom projects. Our brand’s philosophy is dedicated to playfulness and eccentricity. We believe design reveals histories and offers the opportunity to tell a new story through combination of the old.
What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?
I believe creativity is its own reward. I like the work I make, I’m proud of it, and that brings me pleasure. It’s the same thing in principle as the satisfaction you get from doing a good job in any circumstance, whether it’s organizing files or coordinating a business merger. I suspect artistic tasks bring more pleasure for me because in doing them I’m witness to visual beauty. A well organized file cabinet is certainly beautiful, but the meaning it carries, within the context of a job, is limited to the intellectual relief of organization. The reason I choose to do art is because the possibilities of what it can express are limitless. Artwork can bring together ideas that otherwise have no business being together, such as the famous surrealist encounter between an umbrella and a sewing machine. Out of that encounter, something new may be generated or it may not. In either case, the artwork exists and its beauty can be appreciated for that fact alone. As a business, being an artist involves its fair share of profit oriented tasks. But there is a certain satisfaction accessible by simply making something exist, and that satisfaction is addictive because it doesn’t last. One idea leads to another. There’s always more to do.
Have any books or other resources had a big impact on you?
I’ve mentioned the lecture by Robert Davidson on the business of art. I think his perspective is a great model for artists because he is able to articulate the attitude necessary to view your ‘work’ as work (that is, something you need to make money from) without diminishing the importance of the artwork as an aesthetic and social phenomenon. Professional artists are making art for other people, not themselves, and therefore need to create a market demand for their art just like any business needs a market for their product. To the extent that artists are intellectuals, this applies to the market for our ‘ideas’ as well. Davidson is also very didactic and shares advice specific to the business model of a studio artist. Another resource I’ve found impactful was the book “What They Don’t Teach You At Harvard Business School,” by Mark McCormack which my Dad lent me after I completed an online program with HBS. The book is more specific to a corporate business environment but includes insight applicable to all management positions. For example, McCormack stresses the importance of human interaction, sharing that he’ll often fly to meet someone face-to-face rather than speak about something important over the phone — both to form an accurate impression of them and give a good impression of himself. This kind of attention to detail and human individuality is especially important for networking in the art world where your personality can represent your brand as much as your work.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.studiofrajas.com
- Instagram: @StudioFraJas
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasper-isaac-johns-b1372518b/
Image Credits
Portrait of Jasper alone, credit to “Steven Zeswitz” Portrait of Jasper (right) and Francisco (left), credit to “Nick Morrison” All other photos are courtesy of “Studio FraJas”