The Resurrection of Craft
The Resurrection of Craft
Lasting Techniques for Lasting Truth
Interview with Jake Weidmann by Caroline Greb
Jake Weidmann sits at his drafting table with headphones on, listening to Brother Lawrence’s The Practice of the Presence of God. Bent over a microscope, with one hand he navigates small movements of the engraver’s block. In the other, he carries a sharpened tip across the pristine 14k gold surface to etch perfect, miniscule letterforms. He inscribes flourishing letterforms again… and again… and again, not only in order to get it right, but until he can’t get it wrong. It is here—where the engraver delicately meets the surface—that Weidmann meets his Creator.
Weidmann is a self-taught artist, yet he holds the distinct honor of being one of only nine living certified Master Penmen—and the youngest to ever receive this status. He marries calligraphy with various forms of fine art, including paint, gold leaf and woodworking. I first came across Weidmann’s work in the humble gallery space of my alma mater. The small room was filled with such intriguing work that all the awkwardness of our outdated 70s art building became irrelevant. Onlookers buzzed with remarks on the precision and incredible dedication of the artist. Students from the opposite side of campus, with majors having no connection to art, marveled at the circular single stroke drawing of Martin Luther, a portrait of the beloved writer in “C.S. Lewis and the Untamed Lion,” and, Weidmann’s personal favorite, the sculpted bronze “Sojourner’s Rose.” His work tells the story of something special, something divine—Weidmann creates for a higher end. “Even in pieces of ‘common grace’, there is something of His glory that is there,” he comments.
Nearly two years later, in the midst of a bitingly chilly winter morning, the warmth of the Spirit in our phone conversation elevated my soul to higher things. Despite the distance between my brick walled apartment in the Midwest and his house nestled in the foothills of Denver mountains, I breathed in the aroma of Christ that seeped through the witness of his work. The work of this artist’s hands and the prayers of his heart are undoubtedly inseparable. Faith not only fuels his work, but his work also fuels his faith.
Weidmann began his development as an artist as a draftsman, drawn to analog art forms which require traditional materials and training. He represents the next generation of draftsmen, painters, penmen, and sculptors who embrace these longstanding forms. He has a natural affinity for old-world techniques that demand intense patience, longsuffering, and dedication. Years of practice have led to total mastery of the pen. The craft is on its deathbed in an era of digital illustration—but Weidmann brings the breath of resurrection.
Calligraphic strokes sweep in perfect arches to form the verses of cherished hymns. Flourishes of ink cascade to create the intricate plumes of a peacock. Translucent layers are washed onto calfskin vellum made to look like alabaster stone. To many eyes, it looks like little has been accomplished. But to the artist, he knows the layers are building, however painfully slow; however seemingly invisible. Weidmann confesses that even he is “self-conscious of the amount of time it takes.” True craft takes time; more time than most are willing to give.
Weidmann quotes Michelangelo: “If people knew how hard I worked to get my mastery, it wouldn't seem so wonderful at all.” For him, the “tedium of creating art” births a deep and lasting joy. “We innately recognize [art] as sacred when real hands are put to real work,” Weidmann explains. The artist did not take the short path, but chose the way of long nights, wearied perseverance, frustrating interruptions, and slow results. He chose the way of love. For many of us, our hearts have begun to tire of the quick-easy-disposable-dollar-section wall art. Thoughtful work like Weidmann’s endows a piece with something invaluable: the Imago Dei heart of another.
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Weidmann and I bonded over our shared experience as parents and artists, tending to our work while beautiful two-foot tall reminders of embodied wonder run in and out of our studios. In his classic book, Orthodoxy, G.K. Chesterton discusses how adults “have lost the ability to exult in monotony,” but children, who “are in spirit fierce and free,” may.
Children do not tire of the same play, the same daily work, but say “do it again.” Chesterton goes on to say that “It may not be automatic necessity that makes all daisies alike; it may be that God makes every daisy separately, but has never got tired of making them. It may be that He has the eternal appetite of infancy; for we have sinned and grown old, and our Father is younger than we.” Mimicking God in the act of creation is to become a child, to exult in monotony, and in that find supreme satisfaction. Weidmann’s creative stamina is and can only be fueled by his personal knowledge of these truths. As his hands meet the grindstone, ongoing conversations with the Father turn into shapely, physical litanies of praise to a generous and kind Abba.
Weidmann’s process as an artist is otherworldly, full of the unexpected and upside-down kingdom energy that comes with knowing that his art is not the priority. His loves are rightly ordered. First, he lives in humble obedience to his calling as a son of God, next, he serves as a husband to Hannah and a father to his children, and finally he is an artist. Though he is encouraged to create larger-than-life pieces to gain more prestigious recognition, Weidmann has followed God’s call to the small things, finding himself bent over a microscope.
Weidmann’s wife, Hannah, has long been the administrative hand behind Jake’s success, but her creative spirit was itching for an outlet of its own. Thus began the joint Weidmann dream of Everyday Heirloom Co.—an artisan jewelry company. He explains: “‘The world says go large! Flex! Show your strength!’ But He says over and over, ‘do not despise the small beginnings.’”
Now, Weidmann reflects on what he would have missed had he not heeded God’s voice. Everyday Heirloom Co. bursts with glorious messages from Scripture, formed in intricate and beautiful symbolic pieces of old-world romance and charm. The couple has realized, “what we are doing is holy ground—to put necklaces around the necks of God’s beloved.”
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Visually, Weidmann hopes his audience perceives a sense of timelessness. This is the role of a great artist: to notice and to remind the beholders of the greatest truths that withstand all trends and last for all time. Weidmann rather poetically states that “a good artist is in their time; a great artist is ahead of their time; but a godly artist is for all time.” Weidmann encourages artists to speak the truth through their work that stands yesterday, today, and forevermore. In this holy place, it is hard to create art without entering into a deeper relationship with God. The work becomes prayer and prayer becomes the work.
Though clearly not lacking inspiration, Weidmann is grateful for the demands of life as a professional artist to keep him in the flow of work. He knows that even if he is not feeling it, he can’t take a day off. The commitment he has made to others overrides any creative valleys every artist travels through occassionally. Picasso said, “Inspiration will come but it has to find you working.”
The soul that shines through Weidmann’s work is what makes his art so powerful and mezmerizing. He is “dusting for the fingerprints of God”; He is “looking for signs and wonders.” But how can we see them if we’ve forgotten our capacity to wonder? So Weidmann cultivates his own wonder in the heart of God. Then it becomes incarnate in a well-trained, flourished stroke, “to remind people how to wonder” themselves. It is only human to grow jaded with the world around us—Weidmann says, “like rivers running with wine just to remind us of our astonishment of when they ran with water,” his old world craft turns the modern on its head to beckon us to look once again.
The artist is to make the world new, to bring color to the grey and shape to things without form. And so Weidmann does. God’s glory is rendered back to Him.
Caroline Greb
Fine Artist & Writer
Caroline is a fine artist based in rural southern Michigan. She graduated with honors from Hillsdale College with a B.A. in Art, finishing her degree with a senior show of nearly 50 fine art works. At Hillsdale, Caroline grew to be deeply passionate about creating works with realistic and rich beauty, most especially through observation of the ordinary world. Find Caroline’s art here: www.carolinegreb.com
Find Jake Weidmann’s work here