Jerry Ross
BARRISH
PLASTIC MAN
By Michael Potts
S
an Francisco-born Jerry Barrish is a big guy with the Free Speech Movement and the Summer of Love came
an easy manner. His Dogpatch studio consists along, they backed off, and Jerry made his mark as the guy
of a downstairs gallery, a large workroom, an who got the hippies out of jail.
upstairs gallery, an outdoor work area, and two giant
The urge to create runs strong in Jerry, and it didn’t
shipping containers noisy with extraordinarily lively take him long to get his business running well enough to
sculptures.
give him spare time. He apprenticed to a sculptor, then
In the downstairs gallery, there’s a menagerie of crea- got into the sculpture program at the San Francisco Art
tures in varying shades of bronze . . . but wait! Aren’t Institute. “I got in on the GI Bill, and tuition was expensive,
those toy tractor
so I meant to get
tires standing in
my money’s worth.
for feet on that
I was 30 years old,
baby rhino? Jerry
and this was an
genially ushers us
important time
into the workroom
in my life. On the
and flicks a switch;
first day, I attended
high up a wall a
a meeting where
neon sign starts
the potters were
flashing BARRISH
complaining that
since 1961 BAIL
sculptors didn’t
OPEN. Jerr y
take them seriousexplains, “Fresh
ly. I thought, ‘I’m
out of the service,
not going to learn
I got my dad to
anything here,’ and
take me to Mickey
went upstairs and
Cohen’s “Get Out Stormy Weather (detail), assemblage found objects, 77.5"x40"x22", 2012,
re-registered in the
Wilfred J. Jones photo.
of Alcatraz” party.
film department.”
I sat next to the LA guy that bailed Mickey out, who
Jerry can’t help being a natural storyteller. In the back
asked me, ‘What’re you gonna do?’ I told him I had no room, shelves of creatures clamor to tell their tales. These
idea. ‘Go into bail bonds,’ he told me. I said I had no idea are figurative sculptures that satisfy all the requirements
what that was. ‘Then you’re perfect,’ he advised. So I did.” of capital-A Art – gesture, form, balance, proportion. As
Traditionally, bail bondsmen are conservative, so when you walk past, they seem to move and watch you. Even
Spring/Summer 2015
9
Jerry Ross Barrish
Top left: Caribeaux, assemblage found
objects, 17”x32.5”x8”, 1992/2008.
Top right: Thunder, assemblage found
objects, 15”x41.5”x8.5”, 1997/2008.
Mel Schockner photos.
The Aristocrats, found
plastic, painted to look
marble or granite, sizes
vary from 30" to 48".
crowded together, individuals invite empathy and further of California Assemblage,” and I saw that what I was doing
examination. Here’s a truculent-looking dog with a head was different than others’ work. They were doing abstract,
made from a doll’s torso and tractor-tire feet. Across the poetic work, and I was telling stories.”
room a cat with a black drain-pipe body stands tall, holdThe front storage room looks at first like a busy cocking the hand of his white PVC-bodied
tail party attended by elongated people.
dog bride. (We’ll see them again.) And
Jerry stands back to watch us drawn
there’s the original baby rhino. Every one
to a pair of sculptures: a fishing- and
of these creatures is painstakingly contoilet-float pianist hunched over his
structed of the world’s newest disposable
air-handler and drain pipe instrument;
material: plastic.
Waiting, a woman with car heater legs
Judged in terms of the commercial
perched on a garbage can lid chair lookart world, Jerry’s education, careers, and
ing expectantly at a sink-drain phone.
choice of media make him impossible
“That’s a favorite,” Jerry admits. “A rule
to pigeon-hole, and that’s fine with him.
I haven’t broken: I don’t use things that
“I came back to sculpture after a wonare what they represent.” He names a
derful run with my film life. I traveled
famous assemblage sculptor and asserts,
the world, met interesting people, but
“if he made Waiting, he’d use a discarded
it ripped me up and I never made any
manikin on a battered chair looking at an
money. Walking along the beach by my
old-school dial phone . . . and it would
house after a winter storm, pieces of disbe great, don’t get me wrong. I’d rather
carded plastic suggested a Christmas
make my own phone, chair, and person:
tree, so I brought them home and glued
that’s an assignment, a challenge. Most
them together. I started out with some
assemblage is poetic, using weathered
rules – no cutting, no painting – that
wood, well-rusted iron, components
relaxed some over the years. The pieces
with intrinsic value. My work is more
Homage to Degas, 19.25"x6.625"x
I found on the beach told me what to 5.125", 1993, assemblage found
like a novelist’s, putting together a story
make. In 1989 I went to a show, “40 Years objects. Dan Oshima photo.
from common bits.”
10 Mendocino Arts Magazine
Plastic Man
Left to right: Russian Dancer, 26.25”x11”x13”, 1998. Mel Schockner photo. Crying Figure, assemblage found objects, 30”x7”x7”, 2007.
Wilfred J. Jones photo. Crystal Lady, assemblage found objects, 32.5”x6”x6”, 2000. Mel Schockner photo.
Jerry is a noted member of the vivid Bay Area art a large public sculpture at Hunters Point Shipyard that will
world, where artists vie for invitations to the annual hot- have been installed by the time this is printed. “In bronze,
dog party in his studio. He curates shows at the Sanchez I can go from a small maquette to a piece as big as the
Art Center in his hometown, Pacifica, and has mounted client wants. Having a public piece 16 feet tall? I can’t tell
one-man shows at a lengthy and distinguished list of you how exciting that is!”
museums and galleries from Santa Cruz to Brookings,
Jerry’s work recently came full circle for an exhibSouth Dakota. Stunning four-color catait shared by the Loveland, Colorado
logs bristle with scholarly evaluations of
Museum Gallery and the South Dakota
his work that speculate about his uniqueArt Museum with a pair of short films
ness, playfulness, and “virtuosic skill.”
employing his sculptures as characters.
“I don’t take that seriously,” he admits.
One expressed an homage to Marlene
“There’s making art, and then there’s the
Dietrich, an iconic character for Jerry, and
game of art: criticizing, speculating, sellthe other made sport of the Sanctity of
ing. I’m a maker. I’ve sold over 500 pieces
Marriage debate by featuring the cat and
in my career, my peers like what I’m
dog described earlier. Another short film
doing, and I think I’m really good . . . so
starring Jerry’s sculptures, Aristocrats for
why can’t I get seen on the East Coast?”
Romney, can be found on YouTube and
One of his Bay Area pals, curator at
Vimeo. A film about Jerry, Plastic Man:
the Oakland Museum, suggested that “a
The Artful Life of Jerry Ross Barrish, will
whole new world might open up” for Jerry
be featured at this year’s Mendocino Film
if he cast some works in bronze. “I liked
Festival, accompanied by a small collecthe idea, because those pieces could be
tion of his work at the Mendocino Art
displayed outdoors and in public spaces.
Center’s Nichols Gallery in May. The film
The originals aren’t damaged, could be
and a “Meet Jerry Barrish” reception will
rendered much bigger, and I got to play
be held May 30.
Self Portrait, assemblage found
with patina.” At another friend’s urging, objects, 64”x10.5”x9”, 2002.
For more infor mation, v i sit
Jerry entered and won a competition for Mel Schockner photo.
jerrybarrish.com
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