Giving Life to the Community
Artists
Jessica Bodner:
Jessica Bodner, born in Chicago, Illinois in 1972, has resided in San Francisco for the last 13 years. She received an AA in design at F.I.D.M. in Los Angeles in 1989 and a BFA in sculpture at the San Francisco Academy of Art College in 1994.
She taught Beginning Metal Sculpture, Welding and The Summer Art Experience for local high school juniors at the Academy of Art College from 1994-1996. From 1998 to 2002 Jessica hosted an Internship Program at her studio for women interested in learning metal sculpture and fabrication. She has worked on a variety of site-specific art projects and public art projects as well as many private commissions.
Her sculptures are expressive and whimsical. Strong flowing lines lend movement to her "wrapped" steel woven sculptures, which look ready to take flight, eliciting strong emotion, while the abstract suspended chandelier pieces elicit weightlessness. These sculptures are "drawn" in space; movement, light and shadow combine with orbiting metal to produce an electric, ethereal atmosphere.
Jessica Bodner has exhibited her work at Sebastopol Center for the Arts in California, Raiford Gallery in Georgia, and New Langton Arts, Capp Street Project, 450 Sutter Gallery, Bush Gallery and Metra arts, all in San Francisco. Most recently, she was commissioned as the artist to create and fabricate a public art sculpture for the Bay Street Memorialization Project in Emeryville, California. The project commemorates the Native American Shell Mound Archeological Site; her sculpture is a 6' diameter woven metal basket and is located at the corner of Bay Street and Shell Mound Drive in Emeryville.
Prior to starting a chandelier fabrication and restoration shop "Bodner Chandeliers" in the S.F. Bayview district where she creates custom steel lighting, sculpture and furniture, Jessica worked as Lead Preparator for Capp Street Project, an artist-in-residence program. The heart has been gilded in genuine Itallian 22kt exterior grade gold leaf, it took 2400 sheets of gold. I would also like to thank Sepp Leaf Company for donating the gold to me at cost and I would like to thank Elizabeth Maher, Lisa Duke, Judy Davis and Robert Catalusci for donating countless hours of labor in "gilding" the heart.
