About the Artist

Rooted Romantic is a one-man studio creating nature-inspired and custom copper sculptures and jewellery.

Jake Vanderwerf is the guy behind Rooted Romantic. He is is a full-time mixed media artist who lives and works in Edmonton, Alberta. His medium of choice is copper wire.

He moved around a lot growing up: living in Ontario, British Columbia, and Alberta. One constant no matter where he found himself was his love for nature and the act of creating. Jake is self-taught. He found his passion for working with wire in 2008 for a high school project, and settled on working mostly with copper when he launched Rooted Romantic in 2018.

He draws his inspiration from the natural world – the sheer diversity of flora and fauna is an endless source of ideas. In 2020 he started experimenting with kinetic art and automata, inspired by the works of others, like Syl Gautier and Penny Thomson Works.

When he isn’t creating with wire, you can find him out in nature trying to find Chicken of the Woods or identifying plants, photographing, gardening, reading, or trying out new recipes in the kitchen.

Jake was one of 14 Featured Artists in the 2021 Art From the Unknown hosted by Alberta’s NDP.