We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Martin Hernandez a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Martin, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Can you talk to us about how you learned to do what you do?
Everything I do is about learning a craft skills. It started with woodworking and turned it into a full on studio practice. There is not a skill I am unwilling to learn and the only thing stopping me is I don’t know about it yet. Most of what I learn is applied to furniture making and it is what I am most passionate about. I think this passion is what is most crucial to understanding why I do what I do. If you can do the same thing without a profit incentive, then that is something you are passionate about and I am passionate about learning the craft.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
My name is Martin Hernandez and I run a craft furniture studio located in East Los Angeles. The work I produce is niche and somewhat hard to understand for most people. I may have the word “furniture” in my title but most of what I produce lies outside the conventional understanding of furniture. Most of my studio income is producing work for other woodworkers and clients that have contracted me to produce or reproduce furniture pieces that utilize specialty skills such as woodturning, leatherwork, weaving, and veneering. The focus of of my studio practice is to provide a specialty service producing objects tied to traditional or esoteric skills. I am fascinated by our ability as humans to be able to manipulate material in way that is seldomly seen in our highly industrialized and commodified market. The excitement learning skill is the driving force behind everything that I do. My most recent work I am most proud of is my own personal work investigating mycelium, the underground root structures of mushrooms, cultivation as furniture with successful prototyping. I hope to continue this work as mycelium understanding becomes more popularized.
Is there something you think non-creatives will struggle to understand about your journey as a creative? Maybe you can provide some insight – you never know who might benefit from the enlightenment.
I think one of the biggest things non-creatives struggle to understand about my practice is, why? Why put so much effort and money into something that operates at a loss or breaks even? And I think what a lot of people get caught up in is not everything has to make money to be worth doing. If I am able to pay rent and stay debt free, I see that as being successful. My business is small and young compared to most others in my field. I think the challenge is to stay open long enough so people understand what you are doing and the business will follow.
In your view, what can society to do to best support artists, creatives and a thriving creative ecosystem?
The thing a society can do to best support artists is buy their work and live with it. Not only are you financially supporting their practice but also giving them an emotional boost. Supporting an artist you like will in turn allow them to produce even more work. I challenge everyone to buy something small; a drawing, a sculpture, a t-shirt that reflects something they really like made by a singular artist. Live with it for a while and I can guarantee you will begin to cultivate a personal relationship with the work and the artist themselves.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.martinalexanderstudio.com/
- Instagram: @martinalexanderstudio