Marvin Jensen: Motors and Metalwork
Marvin Jensen at work on his milling machine in his well equipped shop. Photo Nancy Lloyd
Jensen’s work is diverse, reflecting his dexterity and flexibility as an artist and craftsman
Text: Allie Farlowe
Arts-y | Nestled in the North Carolina mountains, Marvin Jensen’s studio is a treasure trove of interesting materials, tools and projects, some decades old and others in progress. As you scan the contents of this unassuming structure, it becomes very clear that this is an artist who has spent his life constantly pushing himself creatively. However, what might stand out are the numerous motorcycles that line the central part of the studio. These motorcycles, which lead you to a large paint booth in the back of the room, are also included among his projects. While this might be surprising to some, in fact motorcycles as well as hot rods and airplanes have been an ever-present and impactful well of inspiration for Jensen. As he has nimbly explored various mediums and processes as an artist, they have affected his choice of technique along with his aesthetics and craftsmanship.
Jensen’s aircraft inspired hobby horse/airplane Give Me Wings juxtaposed against a pair of his stools in wood aluminum and steel. Photos Marvin Jensen
Over the course of his artistic career, Jensen has developed a significant body of work. He is probably best known for his metalwork, particularly his raised mokume gane vessels. In the ‘70s Jensen played a role in the revitalization of this ancient practice in the United States. However, these large, exquisite, hollowware forms merely represent one aspect of his artwork. Jensen has created knives, fabricated jewelry, designed anodized aluminum furniture, constructed architectural features like staircases and railings, and engaged in projects for the music industry and medical science. Remarkably, this impressive list reflects but a sampling of his endeavors.
Born in 1945, Jensen grew up on his family’s farm in Iowa. From a young age he and his three siblings used their imagination to create things to entertain themselves. Jensen remembers making model airplanes from kits, assembling go-carts or hang gliders, and later, in high school he even built a hot rod for a science fair project. Since his father would not let him buy a car, he built this eye-catching hot rod “up from scratch.” Jensen used an old ’31 Chevy body, scoured junkyards for parts, and even did his own upholstery and paint job. His father, who was “a craftsman in his own right,” encouraged these creative activities and had similar interests. On a wall in his studio Jensen proudly displays a photograph of his father flying a crop duster that he had before World War II.
Jensen is renowned for his Makume Gane work. He was part of a team that researched the Japanese ancient metal art in the ‘70s. It replicates the look of wood grain using a sandwich of metals. Photos Marvin Jensen. Ed. note, I think it is safe to say that Jensen is an accomplished photographer as well as craftsman.
After high school Jensen earned an A.A. in chemistry and then a B.S. from Mankato State University in Minnesota. In 1979, he received a Master of Fine Art degree from Southern Illinois University, Carbondale. For a sculpture class at Mankato State he built a chopper, and Jensen credits motorcycles with getting him into graduate school. In his application portfolio for the metals program he included images of his bikes. Jensen says these images, perhaps more than his hollowware work, caught the attention of renowned metalsmith Brent Kington, who taught at Southern Illinois University.
Throughout Jensen’s life motorcycles have been a passion. It all started with a 1949 Indian, which he rebuilt in the 1950s. Over the years Jensen has been a committed rider. For about a decade before going to grad school he had a business making choppers. In later years he was a control rider or riding coach for the Ducati enthusiast club US Desmo.
In the early 1970s some of Jensen's motorcycles were written up in Easyriders magazine. An article titled “Look What Grew on a Farm in Iowa!” featured one of Jensen’s choppers made from a ’47 frame and a panhead engine. He did all the “sculpt work, paint, upholstery, chroming … everything in his family’s barn and chicken house.” Easyriders enthused, “We don’t know how [Jensen] was able to do it … but he did a damned tasty design job under what must have been severe handicaps … the bike is just plain bitchin’.”
One of Jensens choppers with integrated tank and frame and fancy paintwork and pin striping. Photo Marvin Jensen
At Southern Illinois University he and some fellow students engaged in a research project that focused on the ancient Japanese metalworking technique called mokume gane or “wood-grained metal.” Jensen approached mokume gane with the same vigor that he tackled projects back on the farm. The challenge of figuring the process out was intriguing to him. In the end, the research group (whose official name was the SI Mokume Gane Research Group) discovered that mokume involves fusing, not soldering, layers of different metals together to produce a workable stack or billet. Jensen’s contributions were particularly crucial, both technically and artistically, to this ancient practice. His large mokume vessels, which he continues to make, are alive with the multicolored wood-grain patterning that appears after forging the billet. Often the metal is engraved during the forging process to achieve the pattern. It is usually treated with a patination process to bring out the colors of the copper, shibuichi, silver and other metals used to create the billet.
While a grad student Jensen also began his adult fantasy hobby horse series. Aware of his motorcycle work, Kington encouraged him to explore this new direction. These forms, with their sleek lines and richly painted surfaces, directly reference his interest in planes. In 2003 he picked this series back up, producing a bright red hobby horse called Norval’s Sacrifice for a Wright Brothers tribute exhibition at the North Carolina Museum of Art. Inspired by his father’s old crop duster, this hobby horse was created with resin composite over a steel tubing armature. The body forms were made of Styrofoam and carved to shape. Jensen always wanted to fly because he was from the Midwest: “It was so damn flat. I just wanted to get up off from it and see what it looked like.”
Beautiful lock back Damascus folder. The Damascus billet was forged by Phillip Baldwin. Damascus steel is forged from layers of steel folded over many times. Quite elaborate patterns can be achieved through this process. Photo Marvin Jensen.
By 1980 Jensen had relocated to the North Carolina mountains to teach a metals course at the Penland School of Craft. He continued to teach various classes there, and at one point he served as the coordinator for the metal, iron and sculpture departments. He was drawn to the creative environment in this neck of the woods. He built a studio about a decade ago near his home not far from Penland.
At Penland Jensen set up a huge anodizing system to color aluminum. He was drawn to aluminum because it machined well and because the electrochemical dye process offered endless color opportunities. Jensen experimented with the process and developed a technique he calls “Penland marble.” Using a lacquer-based resist method, he produced a marbleized multicolored effect, which gave the surfaces of his work a surprising sense of movement. During the 1980s, Jensen made a line of limited-edition, anodized aluminum furniture that was sold in galleries across the country.
Jensen’s work is streamlined, functional and primarily symmetrical. He favors clean lines, embraces color and everything is done with a machinist’s precision. Jensen’s art is influenced by and connected to his life-long interest in motorcycles, hot-rods, and airplanes. Those early years on the farm experimenting with tools, techniques and various materials left an indelible impression. At times, this influence is obvious and in other instances, it reveals itself subtly.
Collage of photos, knives and Makume Gane vessels. Jensen has been a lifelong builder and rider of motorcycles. He credits motorcycles with getting him into grad school. Photo Nancy Lloyd.
Jensen’s work is also diverse, reflecting his dexterity and his flexibility as an artist. Despite teaching from time to time, he has been primarily self-employed most of his life. At times, this flexibility has been out of necessity. Jensen’s willingness to try new things has led to commissions for work as diverse as tables, stairways, awards for organizations and medical research equipment. Starting in 1992 he spent more than two years developing guitar prototypes. After working on the guitar prototypes, Jensen chose to include more wood in his furniture designs.
Following my studio visit, I stopped by the Penland School of Craft. A recent stool made by Jensen was on view at the gallery. Made of curly maple, anodized aluminum and stainless steel, the wooden portions of the form are a bright candy apple red with a polyurethane automotive finish. It is a striking stool with clean lines and bold color. As I studied this work, it became very apparent that Jensen really does not see a difference between his art and his motorcycles. There is a continuity between them, and they are explicably linked. In the end, for this master craftsman, an object must be well designed and look good. That is what is important.
Allie Farlowe is a metalsmith, jeweler and independent arts writer. Her previous professional experience includes museum work in curatorial and registration departments.