BJ had her professional start at the Artisan House in Los Angeles, in 1979, when it was still owned by Curtis Freiler and Jerry Fels, who founded the company in 1964. Jerry Fels, immediately having recognized the talent in BJ, made her his protogé and taught her how to turn her ideas into metal sculpture. After Fels retired and sold the company, BJ remained as the top designer under the C.Jeré name, a combined nom-de-plume for the two founders' names. From 1980-2010 BJ brought distinction to the company for her high quality fine art abstract sculptures, which have brought in a majority of the company's revenue for over 35 years, and continue to do so. Under the C.Jer´name, she is a world renown metal sculptor, with works sold around the world and some pieces even in museums in Europe. Above are just a few of those pieces.
It should be noted that BJ is still one of the very few metal sculptors working in the industry who not only designs her own work but creates, welds and finishes the prototypes herself. The more common practice is to have a team of engineers figure out how to make the drawing or design into a sculpture. By creating the prototype herself, BJ learned to "feel" the metal material and learn the engineering herself to preserve not only the integrity of the peice but the grace and beauty of the design as she had originally envisioned it.
All material is copyrighted by Linnie Aikens and permission must be granted for use by anyone else. It must be clarified that the thoughts expressed in this blog are the opinions and interpretations solely of the author, and may or not be of the artist.