tangenjeff@gmail.com | 2062936979
Jeff is an assemblage artist who works primarily in metal. Like a few of our other Sculpture Park
artists, Jeff is a “Burner” who regularly attends and creates art for the annual Burning Man
festival. Playa Flowers is actually four different sculptures, three of which were originally made
for Burning Man and dedicated to its co-founder, Larry Harvey, who passed away in 2018.
Jeff first went to Burning Man in 2010 and has been going ever since, making artwork nearly
every year he attends (noting that it’s a lot easier to get tickets if you make something for it).
What first drew him to Burning Man was seeing artist Mike Ross speak about his piece The Big
Rig Jig, which is a sculpture of two hollowed out big rigs. Jeff knew he had to check it out for
himself. “What keeps me going is that it’s the only place I’ve been where it’s just a bunch of
people playing. It’s not organized, it’s just people doing silly things. Where else do people set up
a bar just to give drinks away for free?”
Jeff’s attraction to making sculpture comes from his childhood where he didn’t have a lot of
store-bought toys, so he just improvised with whatever objects he could find. “I’ve always been
fascinated by how things are put together and how to repurpose found objects.” His
assemblages often start with an object that captures his interest, then he builds something
around it. Jeff made stained glass in the 70s and sold a few pieces, but his work as an electrical
engineer got in the way of him doing anything big until the 90s when he took a welding class at
Pratt Fine Arts Center in Seattle. Jeff was living in Shoreline at the time with his wife, who
operated a cat boarding business. He had a shop at his home and became active in the “Art on
the Avenues” program in Wenatchee, which bought one of his first pieces. His idea for Playa
Flowers started back then in smaller form.
Scott discovered Jeff’s sculptures when he walked past his front yard on his way to the ferry in
Port Townsend during the height of the pandemic. Scott introduced himself and invited Jeff to
put one of his pieces in the Sculpture Forest. Jeff was more than happy to oblige as it is often a
problem finding a home for big sculptures, which is why several of them reside at his home.
Jeff and his wife love the village-like life of Port Townsend and living among like-minded people.
Although he is retired, he has many house projects that keep him busy so he finds he only has
enough time to create one big sculpture a year, which he creates for Burning Man. Last year he
made a piece called Curious Floral Display, which featured lit up flowers. This year’s project will
be the next generation of it. The lights on his sculptures are the hardest part to get right.
Jeff finds it’s important to have something to work on. Some of his retired friends are at a loss
for what to do with their free time, but that’s not a problem for Jeff. “Basically, I do this because
it’s fun. I’m still the kid playing with things.”