Today we’d like to introduce you to Deanna Pastel.
Every artist has a unique story. Can you briefly walk us through yours?
I found my calling post-graduation from Kent State University, in Cleveland, Ohio. My job straight out of college was working for a startup jeweler named Heather B. Moore, where I learned a lot of my technical skills for my trade and discovered that the thing I enjoyed most was teaching others how to become better within the craft. My new employees started calling me “momma de” whenever they needed help, and it’s a nickname that has re-surfaced with my students over the years in Texas.
As a metalsmith, a lot can happen during the evolution of a piece. Something that you have spent hours on can be melted in a matter of seconds. There’s a lot of blood, sweat, and tears that go into working with metal (especially fine metals) and it can pull a lot of emotions from the smith or student creating with it.
After a few years of being one of the main trainers at Heather Moore, I ventured to Austin looking for other opportunities within my field. I was lucky to land a spot as an instructor at a local jewelry company named Creative Side Jewelry Academy. A startup at the time, housing around ten instructors including some local and international names, quickly grew and found itself in need of a studio director. I was offered the job and spent five years running everything from admissions to materials and set up for over 65 national and international artists, working closely with all of them to ensure class ran smoothly while often working as a teaching assistant.
With new found knowledge and skillsets acquired from working directly with a lot of my idols at CSJA, I decided it was time to branch out as an independent teacher and get back to my craft full time. While my experience was great, I was desperately searching to find my voice again in my craft and apply these skills into new work.
I have spent the past two and a half years in my home studio developing my own line and creating one-of-a kind custom work for clients across Texas. I have also been expanding my curriculum and class offerings to The Contemporary Austin at Laguna Gloria, The Dougherty Arts Center and Southwest School of Art in San Antonio. I have had the honor to guest lecture, work across Texas and the United States with some of the biggest names in my industry, and continue to push my work conceptually and professionally. The biggest attribution to this being published and granted the photo cover for the “Linking Your Lineage” project through the Society of North American Goldsmiths, and working directly with one of my mentors (Victoria Lansford) in Atlanta for the summer on two enormous etched and chased and repoussed works for a client of hers overseas.
Please tell us about your art.
I am a metalsmith/jeweler, so my medium is anything from base metals (such as copper, brass, and nickel) to gold and platinum, with silver being the main metal I tend to work in from a selling point for adorning the body.
My work as a smith has no defined limitations or set boundaries. I create from my emotion, my artistic training for composition, and what has inspired me over the years from pre-dated works to current contemporary selections.
I simply create because I have to. Sometimes this means that I am curating a work based on a client’s specific tastes (like love for art deco or nautical images) while at other times I am creating what currently draws inspiration for me (usually from the scientific or natural world that I am immersed in). This can be visiting the Houston Museum of Natural Science and being inspired by textures from ancient ammonites and petrified wood that I then enamel or etch into the metal, or hiking in the deep woods of Washington State and coming home to create chased and repoussed works based on baby ferns that were sprouting for the first time during Spring.
My work usually tends to reflect a lot of textures that I come across in the natural world that fuels my desire to re-create that natural soft texture into the metal which has complete opposite properties. This comes forward in most of my forging work where I am actually creating flowers out of metal through hammering.
The other side of my brain tends to work in flowing lines and simple shapes that have an element of surprise to them. But none the less, my work always comes back to nature in one way or another.
Do you have any advice for other artists? Any lessons you wished you learned earlier?
This life is a hustle, but it’s worth it if you can believe in yourself, maintain the hustle and keep pushing yourself creatively and technically.I wish there was a road map for all of us trying to make a living being creative, but there are so many different avenues that you can take.
Some of us will be born to solely sell our work in galleries, boutiques, and online avenues. Some of us will educate others coming up in the field. Some of us will accomplish both along with several other side jobs to get by (how I have been most of my career). Another piece of advice is to work with other artists who inspire you! Not just in your craft, but also in other mediums you are interested in! If you are true to yourself, your personal happiness and desire to continue forward in what you love most, the hidden path always becomes clearer as we keep pursuing our goals.
The trick is not to give up, and never stop believing in yourself.
How or where can people see your work? How can people support your work?
All of my explorations in the craft are available on my website at www.deanna-pastel.com.
I do showcase at different schools on a rotating semester schedule and am doing pop up/vending shows locally. I am working on some larger craft fairs for the 2019 year.
The best way to hold some of my more intricate pieces is to take a class with me, as I love to show my work and larger pieces as inspiration during demos for the classes I teach.
My website contains all class information for the year, as well as my collections of work from contemporary to everyday wearables. I often encourage exploration of thinking outside of the box when designing new projects in class and think it’s helpful to see your instructor’s work that relates to what you are learning.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.deanna-pastel.com
- Phone: 216.965-5725
- Email: dpastel8@gmail.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/deannapastel/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TorchTipsWithDe/
Image Credit:
Deanna Pastel
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