Jordan Castro
Plum Island’s Concrete Artist
By Kathleen Downey
Jordan Castro
Painted seashells sit on the dining room table of the quaint year-round cottage on Plum Island that Jordan Castro calls home. Samples of Castro’s artwork? “No,” he laughs. “My kids painted those.” However, the father of two young children is an artist. The artistic pieces he creates meld simplicity and austere beauty with a culinary functionality . . . through the unlikely substance of concrete.
As founder of the kitchenware-centric business Culinarium, Castro fashions coasters, trays, sugar bowls, “salt cellars,” loose-tea containers, salt and pepper shakers, and other epicurean designs for the discriminating gourmand. He uses marble dust as the fine particulate that he mixes with concrete, resulting in the original shapes that define his creations. The subtle elegance of each exquisitely crafted design allows beauty to complement each piece’s intrinsic function. Tomatoes, for example, become an objet d’art when displayed on the sloped surface of a white concrete tray.
“I try to incorporate an artistic sensibility into whatever it is that I am designing,” Castro says. He sculpts each of his smaller pieces by hand, casting the prototypes in clay from his Plum Island home. Castro casts the larger pieces from his well-equipped studio in South Boston’s Distillery complex, where he uses a programmable milling machine, a lathe, and a sculpting machine. Describing his work as “simple and elemental,” Castro says that the soft lines and “organic imperfections” give each piece its aesthetic quality—a quality that appeals to him.
Castro’s path to becoming an artist of concrete began as a countertop maker. He custom-designed, built, and installed countertops that provided the necessary utility and made a statement of decor in the homes of his customers. But this craft suppressed the inherent, artistic possibilities that Castro saw in the concrete compound that he handled with his hands. He sensed that its organic nature could allow for culinary wares whose function and form revealed a hidden artistic attribute.
A career at Stoddard’s, America’s “oldest and most distinguished cutlery store,” followed. Castro worked as a buyer for the Boston-based store. “Working at Stoddard’s taught me to be appreciative for well-made things,” says Castro. He learned that customers can get the best designed item for every price point. Castro recalls the limited edition set of three pens, purchased for an astonishing $100,000 by Bono, front man for the Irish rock band, U2. But he also recalls Stoddard’s unpretentious but well-made $3 whistle.
Limes on concrete tray
Unpretentiousness and sensibility characterize Castro’s culinary creations. These attributes, and a quiet humility, also define the artist. But it’s Castro’s wife, Annastasia (who manages the business-end of Culinarium), who shares this dimension of her husband. “Jordan has donated a lot of his time working with at-risk youth in East Boston,” she says (Castro grew up in East Boston). Through the city’s garden association, Castro taught these young people how to inlay their creative artwork into city benches. “It’s great for the kids to see their artwork on display,” Castro says of the aesthetic enhancement to the benches’ utility. “And it shows that you can be a kid from East Boston and be a success.”
Castro also supports charitable organizations through his creations. He recently donated a piece to the Susan G. Komen for the Cure breast cancer fundraiser, held at Harvard University. And he’s donating one of his culinary designs to the upcoming “Fur Ball” fundraiser/auction for the Merrimack River Feline Rescue Society. “We’re both big animal lovers,” Annastasia interjects. In addition to their two children (with a third on the way), two small dogs and a cat complete the young couple’s family.
“I guess that I’m a better person than I thought,” Castro jokes, slightly embarrassed by his wife’s praise. They met 15 years ago; one was dressed in drag. “Yes, I was in costume,” Castro admits. “I was working the door at a club in Salem on Halloween.” “And I had stopped in after work with a group of friends,” says Annastasia, who was wearing business attire. They shared mutual friends and developed a mutual affection for one another.
After marrying, the now thirty-something couple lived in East Boston before moving to Salem. Three years ago, they bought their home on Plum Island and relocated here. “We had been making frequent day trips to Newburyport for years,” Annastasia says. The city’s restaurants, supportive artist community, and beautiful outdoor spaces appealed to the self-described “outdoorsy, ocean-type” couple.
“Living on Plum Island is wonderful,” Castro declares. He especially loves the desolate beauty that winter brings to the island.
Hexagon concrete coasters
Castro finds his inspiration not only in the natural elements that surround him. He is a big fan of jazz music. “I can listen to a piece for 20 years and hear something new each time,” Castro asserts. He cites the composer/jazz trumpeter Kenny Wheeler as a musician, and human being, whom he admires. “I had the good fortune to sit down and talk with him after one of his performances,” Castro shares, delighting in this memory. “Not only is he a great musician, Wheeler is a very self-effacing, modest individual.”
And, of course, Castro’s family inspires him. “I love what I do,” he says of the artistic, utilitarian, “culinarium” niche he’s created for himself to support his family. Asked to pinpoint what he loves most, Castro stretches his arm high above his head, reaching heavenward with his hand. “My family is way up here,” he says. Then, completing this demonstration, he lowers his other hand to his side and indicates, “Everything else is here.”
Jordan Castro’s culinary designs can be ordered through the Culinarium web site: http://www.etsy.com/shop/culinarium. Sisters We Three also carries selected pieces of Castro’s work.
Kathleen Downey is the Features Editor for Newburyport Today. If you are a townie or a citizen who would like to be profiled (or to suggest someone to profile), please email: Kathleen@Newburyport-Today.com.
