Collection: Smith, Jake

Jake was born and raised in Albuquerque New Mexico. His Mother, Judy, was a school teacher and his father, Keith, was an artist who worked from his pottery studio in the family’s backyard. Jake spent much of his childhood with his father and his pottery business. This early influence fueled Jake’s creative mind and his father’s studio gave him a safe space to experiment in. This experience also showed Jake that an essential part of making a living with your hands is building positive relationships with clients, suppliers, and fellow makers.

As a young man, Jake was passionate about building and riding custom motorcycles. At 17 years old, Jake moved to Los Angeles to work for Russell Mitchell at Exile Cycles. He eventually started his own shop, Ultra Violence, which focused primarily on custom motorcycles but he also fabricated architectural components and props for the film industry.

In 2012 Jake relocated to St. Cloud, MN to be with his girlfriend (now wife) and to complete his Bachelor’s degree. It was here that the skills he learned in the motorcycle world began to come full circle to the artistic roots of his childhood. He completed several sculptural projects for public art and private collections, as well as online sales of smaller pieces.

In 2017 the couple and their son, Dylan, moved back to Jake’s hometown of Albuquerque. They would complete their family when Daisy was born in 2020. Since moving back to Albuquerque, Jake has worked primarily from his home based studio and completed public sculptures as far away as New York and Michigan.