John Gerding’s creative nature was evident very early in childhood.
Growing up just west of Minneapolis, MN, he exercised his artistic
abilities through drawing, and in 1989 attended Alfred University.
It was here that John graduated from two dimensions to three.
The impact and enjoyment of working with substances that are
real gravitated him towards creating with wood, metal, found
objects, etc...After receiving his BFA from Alfred in 1993, John
studied welding and fabrication at the New Hampshire Technical
College at Stratham, and began working in the welding field.
For many years, John gained valuable experience in the workplace,
always tiptoeing a line of creatively working a product and
productively working a creation. Over the years, John married his
college sweetheart, glass artist Jen Violette and lives on a small farm
in Wilmington, Vermont. “I’ve always been interested in the process,
not just in creating a sculpture, but also in day to day projects.
Figuring out how to do something is what I really love, and I don’t
just want to do it, I want to learn the skill and be good at it,
always furthering the ‘create’ in creativity. But no matter what the
project, a job, a sculpture or a piece of art, it always starts with a drawing’.