”Growing up in Brooklyn I remember the number of artists that used to live here. A single building in Dumbo used to breathe life into the little neglected corner of the borough. Behind each door of the dilapidated hallways held studios with endless possibilities - a sculptor carving Italian marble, an artist painting a ceiling-to-floor recreation of The Horses of Neptune, or a woodworker specializing in Japanese Sashimono joinery. Now, much like their predecessors, they are gone - some of them have passed away, others have moved on from New York, but most were forced to quit their craft due to the rising cost of living and rent in the city. I started working with metal when I was 15, leading to apprenticeships in stained glass and wood restoration, masonry, and stagecraft, but I always returned to metal. My father started his metal shop in Dumbo and he was one of the founding members of the Dumbo Arts Festival - an event whose original intention, bringing attention to the deprived artists of the community, has long been lost in the pockets of the neighborhood’s investors. Due to chasing rent and lines of credit, most of the artists never had the time to pass on what was taught to them nor what new techniques they were able to develop and this is leading to the death of fine craft. I want to take what I've learned from these contemporary masters and share their legacy while contributing to it in my own way.”

- Jack McDevitt