Jessica Hammerbacher
Artist & Owner – Desolate Pariah Studios
Welcome to Desolate Pariah Studios. My name is Jessica Hammerbacher and I am the Artist and Owner. Thank you for checking out my site and taking the time to read my story, I hope to get the opportunity to work with you! Click the contact me link on this page to reach out to me directly and please feel free to check out my educational history, professional experience and the pictures of my work. Every picture on this website is of work that I have personally done. There are no stock photos or borrowed images as representations of my capabilities.
Since I was a small child i have been obsessed with the arts and creating. From gifted and talented art programs in school, to art camps, an art magnet high school, Carver Center for the Arts and Technology, to my Bachelors in Fine Arts from The Maryland Institute College of Art i have spent my life training, honing my craft, and learning new skills. My mother loves to tell the story of when i was very young, i was asked if I was going to be an artist when i grew up. My response, with that of the sass and attitude that I could muster, which if my 6 year old daughter’s attitude is at all a gauge of what i was like, it was a lot, was that i wasn’t going to be an artist, I WAS an artist.
After college, realizing you dont just become rich and famous from art and that i needed a steady income i entered the corporate world, supporting the DoD/ Intelligence Community. Even there i always found that i was given so many creative challenges and that everyone seemed to turn to me when it came to anything artistic at all. Which is where i learned marketing, graphic design, website development, event planning etc. and of course outside of work, I continued to create.
Art, no matter what it is I’m making, has always been my happy place. There’s nothing i’d rather be doing. But I love learning new things and taking on new challenges. Whenever i start working in a new medium I always want to take things a step or 10 steps further, testing the limits, see what else it can do and how I might be able to use it in unconventional ways. Normal has always been dreadfully boring to me which is something that I try to instill in my kids. Be bizarre and different, do things your own way. And that carries over into everything that I create. i don’t want to just copy what others out there are doing. I might start there but things quickly deviate as my head goes to, “well that’s cool but what would happen if i did…” I love using unexpected material in surprising ways and finding out just how far I can push them to create truly original and special pieces that stand apart. I can absolutely build a very traditional piece of furniture or refinish your antique using the same techniques and skills as someone else. But what sets what I do apart is my creativity and ability to make something very personalized and unlike anything else you will find out there.
So why “Desolate Pariah Studios”? My husband and father of my children, passed away in July 2019. The name comes from the words he had tattooed on my his forearms. They were done during a really rough time in his life. But despite all that he had experienced, he had a spirit that couldn’t be taken out. His happiness and personality was infectious. While his time was short, 35 years, his impact on everyone he met was huge. He acted as a man who had it all. Even with what he was dealing with medically, which included a lot of pain, he stay that positive, happy, ridiculous, bizarre man that everyone knew him to be.
He always wanted me to do something with my art. But i was never in a position to step away from the career I had built and take that risk. He had a lot of medical stuff going on and wasn’t able to work, we had two young children and a home, etc. so my career was supporting us, providing that stability.
When he passed away, it was completely unexpected as he was literally days away from what should have been his final surgery. I spent the next year and a half in a daze, going through the motions, trying to keep it together and mostly just trying to make sure that the kids were going to be OK. But I was losing more of me each day that passed, and combined with COVID’s impact on the industry in which i worked, things were not getting better. With the love, support and essentially a swift kick in the @ss from some really incredible people (shout out to Rick and Kevin to be specific), i realized that i couldn’t just keep going through the motions, that it was time that I do what i have always done best and hustle like crazy. I realized that i was in a very unique and perfect situation where I could start a business. I could finally do what i love and what my husband always wanted for me.
So here i am, going for it. Since July 2021 I have literally spent every moment of every day,from about 5am until 7 or 8pm in my garage, working on setting up this business, building the website, creating, taking pictures, and doing the research. I took the opportunity to learn a few new skills, including 3 months of an intensive welder training program, and then a web development course. And I don’t plan on stopping any time soon.
EDUCATION, TRAINING, & CERTIFICATIONS:
- Bachelor of Fine Arts, Fibers (Textiles), Maryland Institute College of Art, 2005
- High School Diploma, Majored in Visual Arts, Carver Center for the Arts and Technology, 2001
- American Welding Society D1.1 cetified in Flux Core Arc Welding (FCAW) in both 3&4G positions, 2021.
- American Welding Society D1.1 cetified in Sheilded Metal Arc Welding (SMAW) in both 3 & 4G positions. 2021
- Intermediate Gas Metal Arc Welding (GMAW), Earlbeck Gases and Technology, 2021
- Intermediate Sheilded Metal Arc Welding (SMAW) Earlbeck Gases and Technology, October 2021
- Intermediate Flux Core Arc Welding (FCAW), Earlbeck Gases and Technology, 2021
- Foundations of Welding, Earlbeck Gases and Technology, 2021
- Web Development, Graphic Design and Marketing courses, Carroll COmmunity College, currently enrolled
Professional Experience
Vice President of Events, Board of Directors for the Young AFCEAn’s
(2018-2021)
Director of Staffing and Graphic Designer, KaRDS Cyber Solutions
(2017-2021)
Graphic Designer / Event Planner / Staffing Manager, Cyber Cloud Technologies
(2015 – 2017)
Marketing’s Manager/ Website Design / Graphic Design & Events Coordination, ProSync Technology Group
(2011 – 2015)
WHAT I DO
Custom Furniture builds
Live Edge / Epoxy Resin Furniture
Artistic Refinishing
Reupholstery
Sewing & Costume Design
Welding
Metal restoration
Event /Party Planning and Decor
Murals
Custom Art Pieces
Cremation Ash Resin Keepsakes
Digital Editing
Graphic Design
Custom Vinyl Transfer Stickers
Iron on Designs
Stencils
CLICK THE BUTTON BELOW TO GO TO MY SERVICES PAGE AND LEARN MORE
Desolate Pariah Studios 