Metal Shop - Jon Pompea

Artesian Statement

I grew up in a household where we worked with our hands as freely as with our minds. Both were valued equally. At a very early age… pre teen I worked in my fathers shop filing parts.. assembling things , machining , drilling. Older craftsmen took me under their wing and they continue to this day. It seemed like torture then but something emerged over the years… a respect for the act of constructing and those that had developed powerful skill sets in their prospective trades. This all played out simultaneously as my passion for art and metalworking developed and grew. I feel I am blessed to have had both these forces battle things out over 5 decades of my creative and artisan life.

Bio

Significant events in my Biography as Artist and Metalsmith

Born Feb.9th 1961 to a working-class family

Where it began…3rd grade public school system encounter with my first creative spirit. An older Asian man Mr. Lee an Art teacher in the public school system rest his sole took an interest in me amongst a raucous and disinterested class of misfits and recognized my creative spirit and the fire within. He nurtured my drawing and artistic prowess…His quiet but commanding way captured my attention, and he entered a charcoal rendering of Napoleon I did in a city-wide art competition for all public schools, and I promptly won 1st place. He disappeared the following year along with my interest in art for the next 15 years and I went on with my boyish misdeeds until my father came along.

My Father had at the time a small developing company making machinery with a machine and assembly shop. Sometime around the age of 10 my younger brother and I were dragged (not happily) to his shop to work with the older gentlemen filing parts and learning how to use a drill press and hand tools. This continued for the next decade. I worked with a lot of Eastern European mechanics learning my way around a machine shop and assembling machinery. I didn’t like it much ….it turns out it might be the most consequential learning experience I’ve had thus far in my life. The fundamentals of constructing, measuring, project sequencing and conceptualization were planted as a seed here. I’ve been watering them ever since. (1970 to 1980)

University of Bridgeport College of Industrial Design (1981 – 1982). First classes for formal drawing training and model making. I dropped out after a year and floundered. Moved to Boston. lived on the edge… hustled …drugs …went off the rails. One day while wandering around downtown I stepped into Boston MFA I right into a Robert Morris Show…basically to get out of the cold. That experience hit me…like a bullet to the forehead. That someone …could work with their hands and become a vessel to a higher power and the resulting thing… weather it a painting or sculpture would bear witness to that experience …really from that point on my life as an artist began. (1982 to 1984)

New Haven 1984. Moved to New Haven and rented a studio that I lived in till a section 8 apartment became available.

Worked diligently developing my art skills attended classes all over and found two great teachers at Silvermine Academy, Jackie Kaufman who I studied with for two years with Pastels …understanding color relationships, composition and studying masters. Eve Ingalls built on that in her painting classes. Spent countless hours attending free model classes and worked long days and nights honing my skills …I became a painter. I went off to Vermont Studio School and met Stanley Boxer who became a friend and mentor …I speak about him at length in my influence’s writings. Another individual entered my life …Matt Bozorski…he lived in my building a graduate of RISD fine art…metal sculptor. He worked at Talix foundry …had a studio cross town and I helped him pour bronze castings in the evenings from his homemade furnace…my pay was a cold six pack and his secrets…the magic of metal …the spell was cast.

Two friends or mine both accomplished photographers Spencer Hardy and Brian Gill threw an art show for me at their studio and we formed a company making hand wrought French style chandeliers. I began my lifelong career here as a metalsmith and blacksmith. The same fervor that consumed me in art now took over as I developed my skills as a blacksmith. I joined ABANA (Artist Blacksmith Association of North America) and made my pilgrimage to New Mexico to study for a month with Frank Turley, a renowned blacksmith teacher. I’ve been using the lessons from that experience almost daily for the last 35 years. I chased the best …Alber Paley, Tom Joyce, …and the grand master Samuel Yellin, (the leader of the greatest metal shops this country has ever seen) studied their work and lives. I founded Studio Pompea a blacksmithing/ forging business and made custom furniture and worked a 50lb little giant trip hammer into the ground for the next 10 years. It was a special time …along came another individual …one who had a powerful influence on my career in metalworking …Keven Roche… a world-renowned architect.

Kevin took me under his wing over the next several decades to execute some very special projects for his clients. The first was a private commission a chandelier ensemble for Bill Hewit (chairman and CEO John Deer Corp) and a special client for Kevin. His right-hand man Howard Lathrop worked with me here and we formed a lasting friendship. It was hung in one of only two residences he ever did, the Sonoma Valley location and wound up featured in Architectural Digest. I also did another private commission for the Roy Vagelos residence (CEO of Merk at the time), another project that won all kinds of awards. Just being in that orbit at the time with these individuals was great to say the least. We did a forged tree chandelier and table base for the Vagelos family. All of these can be seen in my commissioned projects area on this web site. Kevin went on to have me do the front railings in bronze at both the Met Museum and Museum of Natural History as well as work at the Jewish Heritage Museum and other projects. He has a special place in my development …he pulled the best out of me at that time, and I had the unique privilege of becoming great friends with his family …drinking and eating many an evening with these good folks.

Artist on Hold From the early 90s to 2010. My artist life went into hibernation during a period of 2 decades after my marriage to my wonderful wife Shirleyann and raising my 4 great kids, Jordan, Zachary, Zuri and Janelle. They remain my greatest accomplishment and most treasured creations. They are grown now …my business stable and less invasive into my creative life, a more harmonious and healthy existence.

Creative Metal Fab years. I founded a Custom Metal shop in Stamford CT in the early late 80s which grew to over 20 fabricator mechanics. I trained and grew with some of the finest metalsmiths around, forming a unique bond with my employees. We executed over 50 million dollars’ worth of custom metal work for some of the most difficult projects and highest end residential construction companies and architects all seen in my Metals Shop portfolio. I worked like a maniac for 20 years developing this company till it morphed into a smaller company after the stock market collapse of 2008. Since then, I have been leading my new company Pompea Metals Group continuing in that tradition.

Pompea Metals Group current custom metal fabrication and design business executing high end architectural metalwork fin the Fairfield and Westchester County area and NYC metro area My Artist Career now at an age of 60. It’s time to bring my artistic life out of the shadows to shine. My powers and skills as an artist have matured and reached critical mass. There is a reason many artists do not get recognized till later in their lives and it is my hope that bringing my work to the public will be well received and taken seriously …. I will be doing it till the day they are throwing dirt on me!