Daily Inspiration: Meet Bradley Scherzer

Today we’d like to introduce you to Bradley Scherzer.  

Hi Bradley, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
I grew up in two parts of the Toledo area, beginning the Point Place neighborhood of North Toledo and then moving to a village just south called Waterville. The Anthony Wayne School District gave me an excellent education full of opportunity. It was there that I had regular arts education from elementary through high school. With courses in photography, digital art, jewelry making, ceramics, painting, and drawing, this school system and my teachers always had something more to teach and opened doors that I do not know existed. I credit this environment with forming so much of my thirst for learning and foundation of what is possible. Equally, I was raised by a mother who was creative and a crafter and a father who tackled all sorts of home repair projects. Together, I was raised to be a knowledge-seeking problem solver. 

From there, I was recommended by my high school art teachers to pursue Art Education based upon my artistic skills and their observations of my interest in helping others. This advice landed me at Bowling Green State University in Bowling Green, Ohio for four and a half years, earning a BFA in Art Education and 2D Studies. My time at Bowling Green was a time of community and resources where I adopted several mentors and found great success in my efforts. 

I was hired right out of graduation to a long-term sub position at a Toledo charter school. From there, I took a position in Fremont, Ohio teaching art to kindergarten through 5th-grade students at three different elementary schools in the Fremont City Schools District. I taught 850 students a week and loved it. 

At the same time, I joined in with friends who were starting an art gallery in East Toledo called LeSo. We worked to support the local artist scene, coordinating and installing a show a month for five years (2011-2016). In addition, we coordinated public art projects throughout the city and fought blight with murals. In 2016 we even partnered with city officials and local musicians, businesses, and residents to put on a free art & music festival. 

A position became available at the high school to teach general art and photography in 2013. Seeking a bit slower pace, I took the position and began building a program that embraced digital photography, digital art, and graphic design. 

In the summers, I worked as an instructor with the Arts Commission of Greater Toledo’s Young Artists At Work program. Over the course of two months, I worked with groups of 15-20 teens to create public art for the City of Toledo and other community organizations. In 2015, my team and I painted a three-story-tall mural on the campus of the Toledo Museum of Art, and it was adopted into their collection. I followed this triumph by applying and winning my first mural call for a large-scale mural on a pet rescue theme. 

In 2016, I became the coordinator and art director for the program and managed three teams of instructors and teen apprentices. We tackled more large-scale murals, painted benches, laser-cut aluminum panels, wearable sculptures, music, and video art. I exited this summer position in 2017 to pursue my own personal projects and paint murals. 

All the while continuing to build and become a better high school art teacher, I have taken on grant opportunities and commercial clients to create large-scale murals. I’ve partnered with other artists, teens, and community groups to accomplish the goals of each task. Projects have ranged from the entire interior of a restaurant to the entire exterior of a grocery store. 

In 2019, I responded to a call for creating an interactive work of art and was accepted to build my idea. This resulted in a 23-foot diameter and 13-foot-tall geodesic dome creature wrapped in a pneumatic tube system and themed as a giant hungry and friendly monster named POOF! I’ve since spent the focus of my studio research exploring interactive works and have built and exhibited several. 

Currently, I pursue both mural opportunities and calls for interactive art. I am deeply interested in creating experiences for adults that pull them back into the joys of childhood and experiences for children that allow them to revel in it. 

Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not, what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
I can argue that my career has been a pretty linear progression upward. It hasn’t been a steep climb, but I have always felt like I am continual level of accomplishment and advancement. The greatest challenge is the process itself. The idea and the results have been great, but the execution, the process, is a real struggle. There is a lot of self-doubt, burnout, and so much problem-solving along the way. However, every time one of those hurdles is overcome, it gives me the energy to tackle the next. 

Thanks – so, what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
As a teacher, I specialize in photography, digital art, and graphic design. As an artist, I specialize in painting (especially murals within time constraints) and interactive artworks. In college, I mostly painted portraits and figurative works. Since then, my time with children and teens has influenced my work to focus on creating works that border on games and encourage playful thought. 

I am perhaps most proud of a mural I created in Fremont, Ohio. The mural was an homage to a local artist, Bernadine Stetzel, that had recently passed away, merged with a hidden pictures structure. The artist’s work focused on her childhood, and she mostly painted memories. I saw this as an opportunity to mix in some of my own memories of childhood, primarily the games I would play in magazines and the backs of cereal boxes. Additionally, I am quite proud of my first and most successful interactive sculpture, POOF! Not only was it a feat of engineering for me, it compelled me to learn an incredible amount at an accelerated rate to accomplish my aims. The result was a giant geodesic dome creature that participants develop a symbiotic relationship with through play and service. 

I believe I am uniquely interested in the act of problem-solving more than the limits of my primary mediums and practices. I am willing to learn as much as I am capable in order to develop my best answer to a design challenge. 

How do you define success?
I define success as having gainfully learned from a worthy endeavor. To have created something that failed in its intentions but inspired meaningful learning in its process is to have achieved success. However, my preferred indicator of success is seeing people interact with and react to my work in intended or positive unintended ways. My works are generally created for an audience, and knowing that they are fulfilled (however temporarily) by their existence is comforting. 

Contact Info:

• Website: www.BradleyScherzer.com
• Instagram: @mrscherzer

Image Credits
Nick Amrhein
Doug Hinebaugh
Jacob Parr