Today we’d like to introduce you to Jasper Alexander.
Hi Jasper, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
Salted Snail Studio was, like many things, a by-product of the Covid-19 pandemic. I’d been working as a hairstylist on and off for nearly 10 years when the salon shut down, and our usual daily lives became suddenly uncertain. In those ten years, I hadn’t made visual art in a “serious” way. With a sudden surplus of free time and anxiety to work through, I picked up painting again. During those first few months, I painted whimsical little landscapes and fantasy scenes. Eventually, I discovered linocut printmaking and fell irrevocably in love with the process. The same things that appealed to me about cutting hair are present in printmaking: I’m working with my hands in small, precise ways and making conversation. The biggest difference is that conversation is no longer with the person in my chair but with my inner self. Alas, both careers have also left me with constantly knicked fingers. It became apparent to me quickly that I wouldn’t return to the salon (even if I ever could feel safe that close to someone else’s breath again). I took to selling my prints online and was delighted to find myself in good company with other traditional printmakers worldwide. The practice of relief printing has been around since the Han Dynasty and isn’t going anywhere. I find such serenity in that. Every time I carve a block, I do the same tedious thing someone did long ago to make something pretty. There are centuries upon centuries of artisans who masterfully did the thing I’m here, now, doing with clumsy fervor.
Please talk to us about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned. Looking back, has it been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Goodness, it’s been bumpy. Responding to the worldwide trauma of the pandemic by starting my own business is sort of like treating a flesh wound with a powerful antiseptic. It may be necessary but still quite painful. I never was a terrible business-savvy person, so I’ve had to learn many skills I never expected myself to be capable of. The growing pains have been numerous, but they indicate how far I’ve come as an artist and person. My biggest challenges have been more personal than professional, but I think that there is no separating those two when you’re an independent artist. I developed a pretty serious case of agoraphobia starting in 2020. I’m still not where I want to be on that road, but I’m getting there, and I’m certain that I wouldn’t be where I’m at if it wasn’t for Salted Snail Studio. My desire to share my art with others can help subvert the fear that often holds my mind captive. After selling purely online for over a year, I attended my first local art market in December of 2022 (a feat completely unthinkable for me just months prior) and now have several more planned in the upcoming months. Creating art & sharing it with the world is the carrot on a stick that gets me out of bed in the morning. My heart is so swollen with gratitude for that opportunity.
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
My work primarily features beasts, urban legends, and the mundanity of magic. I create prints with the awareness that visual art can be a narrative force. Even my pieces that feature the most banal household objects invite you to imbue those objects with your associations and symbology. I am fascinated by the wide variety of ways we make meaning from chaos & then gift that meaning to others through various story-telling methods. It’s an innately human process that is somehow both natural and alchemical.
Though I dabble in various mediums, I primarily refer to myself as a printmaker. Relief printmaking is a ridiculously tedious process. That’s what I love about it. I lament how much consumerism and grind culture pushes us at a breakneck speed that isn’t good for our body or minds. Making art slowly feels strangely subversive.
A large linoleum block might take me days or weeks to carve away. A single print run can take hours – tearing papers, inking, and printing blocks by hand. I love every unhurried moment of it. Subtle traces of the process show up in the final prints. Each print will always be different by the very nature of the medium. Traditional prints are absolutely saturated with the care & the time of their creator. I don’t think what I do is too terribly “special”; it’s the same process that millions before me have followed and likely millions after me will follow. I mean it when I say that (given the resources and physical ability), just about anybody could do it, and here I am, doing it how I please. In that sense, it is so exceptional that it makes my heart ache.
I’ve recently incorporated more hand-sewing and textile crafts into my art practice with the same molasses pace as paper printing. There’s so much textile waste in this world that it feels good to use some of it to make something beautiful. I utilize reused/recycled materials as much as possible in my work. I don’t believe the planet will be saved from climate catastrophe by individual consumer choices, but our intentions matter. My intentions heavily inform my art practice.
Pricing:
- Prints $5-$50
- Brooches & Accessories $15-$30
- Banners & Bunting $20-$100
- Bookmarks $2-$4
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.saltedsnailstudio.com
- Instagram: @SaltedSnailStudio
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SaltedSnailStudio
Image Credits
Jasper Alexander
