BRADLEY SANDERS
MULTIMEDIA ARTIST/CRAFTSMAN
Welcome to my Domain, folks. I am going to be personal here, because I think that my experiences are good indicators of the opportunities and difficulties inherent in the pursuit of a career in the arts and crafts.
Long ago, after exploring the potential options of a working craftsperson in this culture, I decided that I would have to be self educated and self employed if I was to make any progress on my personal career agenda.  I had been in the Army, been to a good art school, been Art Director for a TV News program, and been on the street as a news cameraman. None were satisfactory platforms for my pursuits. All were directed toward the fulfillment of someone else's agenda.  I decided to pursue my own study as an independent craftsman, and to make it a lifetime study.
There are two paths through my site, depending on whether you are interested in simply looking at finished pieces for purchase or  would like to further explore with me.
My method of pursuit of my education is organic and opportunistic by necessity. I'm responsible to support my Family and Community, so I must make a living with what I do. Also, in this time of global uncertainty, it is my responsibility as a Craftsperson to gather and pass on as much of the Craft and the Trades as possible. The Craft, in this time and space, is survival. I am quite convinced that, whether by choice or by circumstance, we Westerners will be compelled to simplify our way of living. However, to simplify effectively is incredibly complex. One has to somehow get at the fundamentals of an idea in order to simplify it.

In my opinion, one path to the fundamentals of our Culture is our capability to Design and Build- the basic Hand Crafts. Here in the United States, it has only been a few generations since we stood at the edge of a new world and began again with only what we could carry. We may well be coming full circle to this circumstance again.

Our entire cultural asset of hand experience and tools has been usurped by Industry and reduced to specialized human elements (think tools) serving Consumerism.  We are now at the turning point of our global excesses. It is important for us all to simplify and learn to share resources. As our culture engages with the concept of Sustainability, we will begin the healing process which must take place if we are to live on Earth. It is during this process that the Hand crafts will be of great importance to us. Simple tools, simple ways of construction, simple life. I realize this position is antithetical to the current trend of technology , and I don't suggest that complex tools should be abandoned. As I write this, I am publishing my thoughts and images based on a technology which uses tiny bits of silicon to process and send bits of information across the earth. However, this progress should hold in trust the old ways, because our network of communications and manufacture is fragile in its complexity. . My studios are dedicated to providing a place where the Hand Crafts and the people who strive to learn hand work can be supported and flourish.

  
Just the Facts and photos of my work. I hope it will provide you with a pleasant cruise through the Joy of creating Beautiful Objects.
My goals and aspirations as a Multimedia  Artist.  Why I pursue an understanding of Multimedia Process. Crafting as a Mind / Body experience. Refining my perception.
SANDERS MUSEUM SERVICES
I have operated a mobile multimedia shop as Sanders Museum Services for more than 30 years (http://www.museumservices.com).
Our task was to set up our shops in a new museum being built, take possession of the artifacts the museum proposed to show, make mounts and armatures for the artifacts, and install them in the museum cases.
This work requires museum quality fabrication in brass, steel, wood, textiles. acrylic, and paper; as well as rigging and lifting skills, and equipment sufficient to moving and staging priceless works of art and artifact. Since 1982, SMS has mounted the collections of 35 major museums, and countless smaller exhibits and private collections and displays.

The transition from museum services to personal work- my personal transformation from serving artifacts to creating art- has occuried between 2010 and this moment. My company, Sanders Museum Services,  helped to secure and protect some 100,000 artifacts of great cultural import in our 30 years of service to National and Municipal museums. Most of our work was with pre-industrial artifacts backwards to the Paleolithic era.
In the course of this self imposed service to History, I learned much about Human process by observing the logic and execution of my forbearers in the creation of tools to make tools to make tools. I was blessed with the opportunity to intimately examine every possible kind of human-made and natural artifact closely, over an extended period.

The closing of our family museum services firm brought with it the opportunity to reinvent myself with a new set of challenges as:

BRADLEY SANDERS ART
For my entire adult life, I have operated a high quality design/fabricate studio, serving Architects and designers in the Washington/Baltimore area. Sanders Design has served as our home base shop, providing design/build backup for the museum services; and functioning independently as an architectural acoutrement fabricator for Architacts in the Washington DC area. We provided detailing and custom fabrication of designer furniture and lighting for more than 25 years, and were published in Architectural Digest and several other significant design periodicals.

All the work here was done in our shops either by me personally or with my employees.
PARALLEL FIELDS
THRU THE WOODS
DOWN THE SIDEWALK
PARALLEL PATHS