Jacob Foran: Beneath the Surface of a 3D4M Artist
by Rebecca Jo Collins
 3D4M Program Artist Jacob Foran explaining current work. Photo: Rebecca Jo Collins |
The Ceramic and Metal Arts building on campus holds more than just pots and aluminum. The domed roofs have recently been protecting massive ceramic interpretations of deep-water exploration, created by graduate student Jacob Foran.
Foran is in the School of Art’s 3D4M Program, an abbreviation for three dimensional forum. “[The name] is meant to imply that our studio-classroom environment encourages the sharing of ideas and concepts,” explains 3D4M Professor Jamie Walker.
Walker recalls Foran arriving at the UW as one of the most well prepared graduate applicants that he had encountered. “His application work was somewhat raw and ambitious in a good way,” says Walker. “He was very clear about why he wanted to attend graduate school and the UW in particular.”
Foran’s reasons for choosing the UW? The people involved. “There is nothing state of the art down here, there is no magical power tool or fancy kiln that is going to make your work for you,” says Foran. “I came here because there are good people--students, faculty, technicians, and alumni. Good things happen here.”
The program has lived up to Foran’s expectations. “I had heard rumors [about 3D4M], and now I am witnessing it,” he says. “I knew that this program would provide a level of intensity and challenge to make me a better artist.”
 |
That intensity is evident even before one enters the Ceramic and Metal Arts building, passing by student art scattered outside the three-domed building. Walking inside the facility is like walking into a complicated but striking mess of unique talent—a place Foran has loyally called his home for two years.
The dusty floors of the CMA building hold a maze of unfinished pieces, scraps, and equipment. Parts of this jumbled labyrinth include a room filled with “electric kilns you program like a microwave,” a metal-works area called “The Foundry,” a small warehouse of table saws and chisels for wood crafting, and a new gallery for students to show off their work. One wing of the north building is strictly reserved for graduate studio space. Due to higher enrollments, additional outdoor areas have recently been cleared for more active workspace.
Foran has a haystack-size mound of crates filled with his own work, which he keeps temporarily in one of the few storage facilities. The contents, which were recently on view in a solo show at Bellevue College Gallery, is a 20-foot long ceramic submarine—an archaic form that he completed in his first year titled, “Bathyscaphe.” He explains, “’Bathyscaphe’ weighs over 2,000 lbs. yet it looks like a big toy to me. It says something about honoring the imagination, maintaining a sense of humor, curiosity, wonder, and childlike playfulness. It speaks of enduring in a time when endurance is of upmost importance.”
 |
Behind the heavy plywood door of his graduate studio are seven more ceramic sculptures almost as tall as the artist himself. They are imposing, abstract forms of hand-built diving helmets made of thick clay and thick, mirrored glass. Foran says that the imagery is a continuation from Bathyscaphe: “Rather than making something that provides (symbolically) a constant internal pressure for a small crew of divers (the way submarines do at 4,000 ft. deep), I am making reference to the human head. Built at a scale large enough to crawl inside, they become strangely architectural.”
Foran is already looking toward his post-UW life. He plans to apply to several national and international residencies and stay productive. His advice to the next crop of students entering the 3D4M Program? Take advantage of the time you have in the program because you won’t have the same resources later on.
“I think one of the most important things to leave graduate school with is the ability to ask yourself really good questions when no one else is around,” he says. “The likelihood of having this [class] dynamic around for the rest of your life is very slim.”
 Link to a YouTube video of 3D4M Program Artist Jacob Foran giving a tour of the CMA Buillding in promotion for a yearly fundraiser, Scholarships for Scholars. |
