EchoesLocation

Completed, scanned and yousendit...ed my Andrew Bird to Rachel last night and I've been getting some nice comments on Flickr about it from friends. It's always strange working on a piece for a good bit and getting so intimate with it. You get to a point where you don't want to let it go for fear of it being frowned upon. No matter how many accomplishments and compliments one gets it's still nerve racking and ultimately (if the reception is decent) pleasing to know that people find beauty in what you put your time in. Basically, I'm glad that I'm a pretty good artist and it's afforded me a little bit of supplemental income and it's brought cheer to people.

Illustration and Artwork
If you've never visited my Flickr page a good bit of my illustration work rests there with some studio, gallery and in progress shots from years past. Now since I've gone and made this post "Jeremy Heavy" I'm gonna toss some links to a few people.

I had the pleasure of sharing my residence and time with Denison Witmer this past weekend. He was in town to play a show put on by my roommate Lindsay. I was pretty unfamiliar with his music though the name rang out pretty strong when she mentioned him coming. The show was great from the opening acts (Kellie Schaefer & Day of Lions) to the venue (The Funky Church) and the Denison headlining was just icing on the cake. His performance was sort of a story tellers type of deal and it was awesome getting some insight into his history and the songs make the listening experience so much more enjoyable. His lyrics are not one for trivial turns, all the words are important and none are wasted. Give him a listen and I'll keep kicking myself for not listening earlier.

Douglas Witmer
The day he left we had a chat about art and he clued me into his brother Douglas who also paints and is having a couple major shows in NYC soon. I looked and really enjoyed the paintings on wood that are actual paintings on wood. Disjointed slats, blocks and found wood, painted with blocks of color that off sets the harsh angles of the wood. Check out all the work and judge for yourself. I tend to lean towards figurative, representational work but I'm a fan of his stuff.

jeremy

Chelsea Williams
I've never been one to really lie about my musical tastes and I'm not going to start now. Roomie Ash had a friend stay the night 2 of the past three named Chelsea Williams. She was in town to play for some radio station general managers to try to strengthen her chances of airplay. Kudos to her. I listened to her music, as well as The Henry Clay People who were in town as well but I'll get to them later, and was impressed with the voice but the style is fairly common singer songwriter stuff. I'm writing about her mainly because I was taken by her sweetness. She is a street performer in the LA area and recently started playing shows. I wish her luck. Give her a listen and see what you think.

The Henry Clay People
I unfortunately missed their set at Doug Fir on Sunday because upon listening to them I really liked what I heard and Ash says the live show is tight and fun. They've been playing together for 9 years and I can hear some of that 90's Indie Pavement-esque sound to them and I dig it. I'll have to look more up on them.

The weekend is almost upon me. I have lots to do. Slightly overwhelmed but it's ok. It's good to be busy.

jeremy

Scott Avett
Scott Avett and Crackerfarm (Mike Beyer & Lindsay Rome) are having a show together in NYC at Envoy Gallery tomorrow night. I obviously don't live in NY...I live in Portland, but if I did I would be at that opening engaged at Scott's beautiful paintings and Mike & Lindsay's incredible photography. There is a great article from the Salisbury Post, found HERE, that does a good job of mapping his artistic career as it relates to The Avett Brothers progress. I met Scott shortly after he finished up at ECU and opened Southern Star Gallery in downtown Concord. I was honored when he asked me to show some work there. I was also smart enough to gather some of my pennies and purchase one of his paintings back then because the price tags these days are nuts. I'm getting derailed. Read that article and check out both of their sites and if you live in NYC go and see that show. It's guaranteed to be awesome.


Susan Brenner
During my talks with Nicole at the Chris Isaak show we discussed UNCC and some of our professors. The ones we liked and the ones we disliked. I'll leave my opinions (and hers) in the air but I wanted to link Susan one of my favorite teachers and working artists that taught at UNCC. The images I've shown come from "This is History...That Is Not Over". It's the series I believe she was finishing up with or close to it when I started in 1998. Most of my classmates are more familiar with "the rope paintings" she was working on during our time there and still exploring currently but I am partial to these early pieces dissecting ideas of beauty in women and sardonically approaching Hysteria as it was diagnosed in the late 1800's. I love love love these pieces. Masterful application and weighted subject matter. It's my kind of work and I am to this day honored to have studied underneath her for my time in art school. She was also the professor that manned the New York Trip we took after I graduated that spawned a lot of new influences for me and a better view of the New York Art Scene. Go check out her site, there is a lot of work there to see so spend some time. Also, shoot her an email and thank her for being a rad teacher and person.

jeremy

Happy Birthday Luti
Yesterday was very productive. It had to be in a sense. I was trying to pack a weekend in one day basically because I have to work in 53 minutes. Sucks I know. Anyways...

I woke up around 7:15am and automatically started working on a makeshift art portfolio for a 4:30pm Portfolio Review at Rake Gallery. I'm looking to get more of my work out and about in Portland. He liked a couple of the pieces I brought in and unfortunately the two he wants the hang are the ones I unstretched when I moved here. So, yeah, I have to stretch an already painted canvas. One of my least favorite things to do...either way it was good to get in there and have new eyes want to hang my work. It's sort of like validation. Anyways. After I finished getting the images together and writing a quick resume I went and had some iced coffee and a chat with Keegan. It was good to actually have a sit down with my house mate. We walked back home and thats when I departed to Kinkos and my review. I returned home and cleaned up the living room and organized my work station. Langhorne called me and said he and Jessie headed to alberta for a street fair and dinner. I drove up and met them at Vita Cafe for a Seitan Cheese Steak, that they crafted with 45 minutes of care. God, that place is notoriously slow...anyways. I then headed back to Doug Fir for the show. It was a good scene with lots of dancing and smiles and high spirits (mostly). After the show, Keegan, her friend Danielle, Elena and her friend, Jessie some of the guys from the Sasparilla Jug Band, Langhornes band and I headed to Rom Toms for a night cap. I ended up having a 2 hour conversation with a drunk girl who walked from Powell with her dog to see her boyfriend. Aside from the dozing off initially it was a really good conversation about getting happy and taking lifes punches and making the most of them. It was good and she had the most memorable eyes. I left around ten til two and headed home to get a LITTLE bit of rest before I head to work which leads me here to this long winded update...

in summation. I had a good day yesterday of productivity, art, music and enlightening conversation. There are a few things I wish had gone smoother but overall I'm happy with my Saturday May 17th 2008.

jeremy

So I've been lax and my reason for not posting is completely unwarranted. I have not been busy making art as I have not worked on anything in close to a week. Sad but true. I've been around a computer mostly this whole time but I've been doing other things. Experiencing life if you will. The facts...

Last Thursday morning Joey and Pam made a visit to the fair city and that was a blast in a half, save having to work both Thursday and Friday. I went and picked them up from the airport not before I scooped Seth up (The Avett Brothers were playing that night at the Crystal Ballroom) from Burnside to surprise the two of them. I surprised them and we had a great drive from the airport to my place where I showed the three of them my habitat and surroundings on a brief walk up Hawthorne. I then had to get back to work for a couple hours. I got off and came home and changed and went and scooped the two of them back up and headed to MK Gallery for Amy Steele's thesis show on the PSU campus. Amy is attaining her masters degree and her thesis revolved around meeting dogs at the dog park and documenting their behavior and interaction with their owners and other dogs. An interesting show no doubt. We then traveled North to Burnside and to meet up with Levi and Alyson for dinner at Ringlers Pub. We had some interesting conversation and it was good to introduce the two of them to each other as we grew beards together for 4 months and it's only right. After dinner we went upstairs and partook in The Avett Brother's concert...definitely one of the best. The crowd was into it as was the boys and it felt like we were all on the same page, a huge celebration where no one stepped on anyone else's toes. It was great...and I met Jerry Glanville.

Friday after going to work for a full day basically I rushed home and got Joey and Pam and we traveled the boring non-scenic route up to Seattle. Blah. So boring but being with Joey and Pam made it better for sure. We toughed the 5 O'clock traffic and even indulged in a delicious truckstop dinner at Gee Cee's (I had the liver and onions) eventually arriving in Seattle at Neumo's at around 10:15 or so. Rachel and Lori joined us for a while but left because they were tired from exploring all day. The show was great albeit a little bunched in to Neumo's. We hung out with the guys for a little bit and then went and checked into our rooms and slept.

Saturday morning was an interesting one as we sat in the lobby and traded conversation with Scott, Seth, Joe, Jessica and whoever else came to our table for nearly 3 hours. What a way to spend a morning in Seattle at the Renton Hilton Garden Inn...I wouldn't have it any other way. Joey, Pam, Seth and I hopped in the car around 2 to grab some lunch. We went to the nice family restaurant called Claim Jumper. We had great service, great conversation and my meat loaf was delicious. We all four went to UNCC together so it's always good to get together and catch up. True friends never skip a beat. We headed back to the hotel where i switched off car passengers. Scott, David and Jessica Lea Mayfield joined me for a venture to Ballard. What a great little area. I'm hesitant to say hip but it was definitely favoring that vibe. I have no problem with that though. The shops were fresh and the people were "unique". I feel comfortable in that environment and I have to say that some of the other portions of Seattle that I've visited don't rub me right. I digress. We walked around and drove around Ballard for a few hours. I bumped into Tiny Vipers (Jesy Fortino) and bothered her for a photograph. I have no shame. We left that area and traveled back to Capital Hill to drop the guys off for sound check. I went and met back up with Joey and Pam at Moe Bar. Fellow beard contestant Will Hays and his roommate Lauren met up with us for a drink and then a walk to a really delicious Thai Restaurant. That was a treat. Then we headed back to the venue and enjoyed the Avetts yet again.

Sunday morning I woke up and spent some more lobby time with friends and then drove to Green Lake for dinner with Will, Rachel and Lauren at a place called Julia's that was absolutely delicious. After some more conversation and laughs I drove back to Portland not before I stopped at the Value Village for some Tacoma thrifting and the Michael's for some supplies.

So all in all it was an incredible weekend with friends and music. I left out a few things for time's sake. It's 5:34 AM and I think I'm gonna take Nolte for a walk and then do some painting before work. I'll also be uploading pictures to my flickr from the weekend today at work so look out for those. Hope everyone else is well.

jeremy

Portrait Set
I added a portrait set on my Flickr page. Just some of the candids and non-candids of friends and people I've encountered over the years. Take a look if you want to.

Jeremy

Miranda July Interview
A small little chat with Miranda July to be seen at the link above. She says some pretty cool things about the ongoing social experiment "Learning to Love You More" and the accompanying show that they had a while ago. There are some other interviews that are featured on there but I haven't read those yet.


So as I said I was, I made a marathon trip to Seattle Saturday to wish Sarah off to Phoenix. She was living there for 3 months and due to my negligence and some unforeseen occurrences we were unable to properly spend the due time that we should have, being old friends from way back. It was good to see her for a bit and introduce her in part to what I've been up to out here. She got to meet Derek and Vanessa...so yeah, that was cool. Good luck in Phoenix Sarah.

Back to work tomorrow, which I can honestly and without remorse say that I dread. It's weird because it's not the worse job. There is just this air of "what are we gonna do today?" "I don't know"-ness about the whole thing. I suppose I could step up and be more proactive about the organization there. It's just I don't really care. In all honesty. There have only been two jobs over the course of my post college work experience that I have sincerely cared about the well being of. Is that a bad thing to say? I need to find work or not and just settle in and be comfortable. I'm getting too old for this check to check shit. Bleh.

sarah is the one on the left
I'm driving up to Seattle for a quick trip to see Sarah off before she moves to Phoenix. She came out here a couple months ago and my negligence and assumption that she would be here for a while led me to think that I had all the time in the world to visit my old friend. I was wrong. I'm excited about getting out on the road for a little bit. I really enjoy the open road.


Whiskerino 2007
If you haven't been paying attention to Whiskerino 2007 you have been doing yourself and anyone in "hey look at this shit" distance an injustice. So much creativity this year. The talk back is always a disjointed sometimes funny & random and at times strangely educational. Check out the site. Michael's made it a lot more interactvive for participants this year, with archives, favorites and the like.

Jeremy