David Jarred » Ohio Artist Registry

Golden Brown was founded in 2009 by David Jarred, and Kenton Brett. We quickly learned that we had a mutual interest in animation and what was then called “new media”. It was a perfect partnership of skills and professional experience. David had been working in the film industry as a lighting technician and had access to professional-grade lighting and camera gear. Meanwhile, Kenton had been working for Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park. He had a skilled hand for painting and drawing plus knowledge of set design and building. We had both managed to interweave our artistic interests with our professional interests; our partnership could capitalize on this whole tool chest of experience and knowledge. We began making animations and video art pieces that mixed theatre, animation and sculpture into our work. We focused on how to use video as an interactive element to entice our audiences. We had great success at this with our first collaborative work, Dance Madness. The piece was a looping video of performers dressed in costumes and hyper-colorized in post-production. The video has been re-shaped and re-installed in a variety of spaces as a sculpture of moving light beckoning the audience to dance with it.
We kept finding ways to make work that used our skill sets and melded artistic disciplines. We created video elements that were used as set pieces in theatrical works for Pones Inc. and Director Harper K.Lee and Alex Talks. In 2012 Pones Inc. recruited us to collaborate on community driven performance for Cincy Fringe Fest. It was called Project Activate and paired 12 artists with 5 service organizations. This project really changed us both at our core. We were paired with Heartland Trans Wellness Group. The project challenged us to get to know a new community of people, to change our perspectives and educate us about the community. This was a watershed moment for Golden Brown as artists and really empowered us to see the positive change we could make through getting communities involved in art making. 
 David has worked on film productions including award winning films like Carol, Judas and The Black Messiah, and action blockbusters like The Avengers and Captain America: The Winter Soldier. Working on these productions David learned how to build specialized rigs for cameras and lighting. These skills have come in handy for our art practice as they boil down to how to make special equipment move safely and how to install heavy items. He brought this knowledge to Golden Brown along with management, production, and technical skills. During this time Kenton was honing his professional artistic skills. 
With over 200 theatrical productions in Kenton’s career as a scenic painter and set designer, there are few that stand out for their level of difficulty and beautiful effect.  The Secret Garden, designed by Narelle Sissons, is perhaps the most successful design in his experience. Kenton oversaw a great deal of the scenic and prop production to emulate the look and feel of a storybook. The set was made of huge stacks of “paper” with oversized excerpts and illustrations from The Secret Garden. A pop-up finale was hidden inside these pages as the garden came into full bloom with big pink and purple flowers. The effect was stunning. In 2013, he was given the opportunity to design a mural for Tender Mercies, Inc. in OTR. The design process of this piece really changed how he approached public art and beautifully illustrates the services Tender Mercies provides while being fun and completely inclusive. He spoke with many residents from the area to really get a sense of the organization and the neighborhood, and with the guidance of Artworks, delivered a beautiful and memorable mural.
As we both worked our ways up to department heads in our respective industries, Golden Brown was making itself known in the art world. By 2020 Golden Brown had started winning grants and awards for cutting edge projects like Riptide Rhapsody, Underpants Dance, and Gwendolyn Gila. Riptide Rhapsody has been screened in over 30 film festivals on every continent minus Antarctica. It has won many awards and nominations along the way. Underpants Dance was granted funding to be a part of the Blink 2017 parade. It used custom-made lighting apparatuses worn underneath inflatable suits, each designed with individual characters using drawing and painting techniques. The work was well received and showed our ability to once again work with intersections between artistic disciplines like performance, costume design, sculpture and lighting design. In 2019 we supersized our concept for Blink and won a grant to create Gwendolyn Gila. We challenged ourselves to create a light up monster that was 32 feet long and powered by 6 people. This monster had to light up from the inside and articulate to eat and digest performers in light-up bug costumes. It was also a feat to design this enormous beast to move elegantly from Garfield place down Vine Street to the Banks. This was an enormous mental and physical challenge, a testament to our ability to work together and solve problems. 
Our interest in the working on public and private art commisions stems from our new found success as entrepreneurial artists. In 2020 we seized the opportunity to make Golden Brown a full-time career.  Our business has taken on large-scale lighting and sculptural installations such as P.B. to blend sculpture and lighting to produce mesmerizing installations. Looking forward to larger, more permanent platforms, this seemed like a great fit for our whimsical style. We have extensive knowledge of durable materials, finishes, rigging and lighting technology. Not to mention over 30 years of combined production and artistic experience. Our thoughtful approach to design and fabrication makes Golden Brown an excellent candidate for your project.