If there’s one thing that can be said about Jed Morfit (shown with Bullheaded) it’s that he’s never boxed himself in. The 35-year-old’s career spans sculpture, illustration, fabrication, printmaking and teaching. This defining factor has allowed him to explore and break down many barriers in the art world. Something not all artists have been able (or even want) to do.

“In the beginning, I tried to keep everything compartmentalized,” Morfit says. “Fine and commercial art communities often don’t have a lot of respect for each other and I didn’t want my work in one to negatively impact the other.” While in some ways he still keeps his commercial work and sculpture separate—his illustrations can be found on jed​morfit.com and his sculptures at jed​morfit.com —he dissolved many of the imaginary lines drawn between his various endeavors. “To me it’s all about problem solving, and the distinction between commercial and fine art is really just a question of who defines the art,” he explains. “In commercial work the parameters are defined by the client. In fine art, by the artist.”

Discovering the likenesses between the two came through understanding the differences. Morfit first encountered these differences upon entering the Rhode Island School of Design in 2003 to pursue an M.F.A. in sculpture. “I was amazed to meet people who just went to the studio and let the process guide them,” Morfit says. “My experience was one of design and built against a deadline.” Putting “blinders” on his commercial skills, Morfit learned to allow process to lead, letting ideas unfold over time.

Morfit also arrived at RISD with a traditional view of sculpture that he did not see being studied at the institute. “As a kid, I went to museums, not galleries, and I didn’t go to art school,” he says. “When I got to risd my conception of sculpture was much more about the Met than MOMA,” he con­tinues. “At school, I was exposed to all of this amazing new work, and artists like Roman Signer and Roxy Paine, but I was struck by how short our cultural memory was. Artists like Noguchi or Brancusi were considered ancient history. It was as though there had been no sculpture before modernism.”

Once again Morfit found himself interweaving two genres—creating traditional sculpture with an updated sensibility, such as ceramic busts held against the wall by heavy counterweights, and fountains where the water sprayed invisibly against the inside of the figure. It was during this exploration that Morfit developed an interest in bas relief. He attempted large panels, but was unsatisfied, feeling that they were awkward and anachro-nistic. Then he moved on to plates. “I wanted something that would feel familiar, and at the same time provide a framework for the new stories I wanted to tell,” he explains. “Plates seemed like the right object— something ubiquitous and utilitarian, with a consistent shape that would automatically link all the different imagery I wanted to get at.”

His first step toward this was making the plates, such as Avelokitesvara and the Blue Birds of Happiness, in plaster and mounting them as wall installations. Moving forward he plans to cast the plates as ceramics, so people can create their own installations on the dinner table—allowing them to tell their personal stories. “I think of it as vernacular sculpture, art that exists in contact with everyday existence,” he says. “They take an everyday object and transform it into something different.”

As Morfit continues to investigate these narratives, he shares his insights at Richard Stockton College, a liberal arts school in Pomona, New Jersey, where he started the sculpture program. “Designing that program from the ground up has had a profound impact on my work, and on how I think about sculpture,” Morfit reflects. “Our goal is give students the tools to engage in a conceptually rigorous investigation of the material world, and to let that lead where it may.”

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