A year 2014

A year has past, and a new one is beginning.  

2014 was full of changes, challenges, had work, and a lot of fun.  

The beginning of 2014 I continued my research looking at graduate schools globally, nationally, and in the Pacific Northwest. I was accepted into the Hallie Ford School of Graduate Studies at Pacific Northwest College of Art in Portland Oergon in Visual Studies. I was happy to say yes. 

Construction continued on the street reconfiguration and removal of buildings around Contempo Designs on West Main St in West Kelso. The construction project was a challenge for our clients and our selves. The revitalization project has not had a positive outcome after its completion for any of the businesses of West Kelso. 

In May, I was one of the judges for the Rose Festival Star Light Parade. Then Phena and I flew to Berkeley for four days and got a suite at the Shattuck Plaza. We had a great time going to the Berkeley Art Museum, local restaurants, movies, and visiting his niece. We took BART into San Francisco and went to the famed Imperial Palace for Dim Sum. I picked up a copy of "Howl" by Allen Ginsberg at the renowned City Lights bookstore. Phena and I toured on foot North Beach and Little Italy. We made a pit stop to look at the murals by graffiti artist Banksy and ended our walk with a beverage at Westfield Center.

In June my hair salon Contempo moved to Vandercook Avenue in Longview and in August Phena and I got an apartment in Portland close to the Sunset Station MAX light rail stop. In the middle of August I met my peers in the Visual Studies Graduate Program at PNCA and we all moved into our art studios. Classes started at the end of August.

Taking 18 credits and working on the weekends has kept me busy with very little time for anything else. Phena has been very encouraging and supportive of my nights of typing and reading. Mom reads my papers for spelling errors. This has paid off with straight A's this semester. Can't beat that! This past year I presented my art at Gallery 6 PDX, "Small Sculpture", Guardino Gallery Day of the Dead Show, "Perfect, Not so perfect" a pop up show at Hotel Monaco, and at Lodge Gallery, "Altered Ground", at Allied Works Portland. 

I retired from hair styling December 31, 2014 after 17 years. You can read the letter here. http://jasonberlin.blogspot.com/2015/01/your-hair-stylist.html

It has been a amazing year making new friends, and enjoying old ones. I savored great meals, going to movies, art, performances, lectures, reading, and writing. I could not have done it without the support of my family and friends. You make the going easer. Thank you. Here's to all the best in 2015. 

Jason Berlin :O) 

 

Your hair stylist

The past seventeen and half years of working as your hair stylist / barber have flown by. Your patronage and friendship has been invaluable to me in so many different ways. Your support and flexibility with my schedule has aloud me to travel and continue my education. Your words of wisdom, encouragement, and personal stories have helped shape me and inspired me. For some of you, the first time I did your hair was on your mothers lap. I have done hair at your weddings. We have been through celebrations, marriage, graduations, sometimes divorce, cancer, recovery, job promotions, getting fired, new homes, new babies, and lots, and I mean lots, of laughter! 

It is now time for me to continue to travel down the path of academia professionally.

I will be retiring from hair styling / barbering December 31, 2014. I would like to take this opportunity to thank you for allowing me to be your hair stylist and part of your life. 

I have enjoyed working with you over the past seventeen years. I am looking forward to new adventures, but will sorely miss you. If I can be of any assistance during the next month please don't hesitate to contact me.

With warmness in my heart, 

Jason Berlin Thomas. 

360-431-0941

jasonberlinart@gmail.com

http://www.jasonberlinart.com

Chemical ___________________Stylist reference_________________________

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Corn Dog

"It's easier to go get one," he said! 

"Well ya', it's easier, but how does it taste?"

That's what I said to my friend when I asked him if we should make them from scratch! 

I had this weekend imaged in my head, a weekend devoted to the corn dog.

A day spend on a farm learning about corn, how it grows, the uses of corn and the different types of corn that grow in the US. I thought about all the different corn batter recipes and meeting with a top Portland chef to Learn the secret of  corn dog batter. Then there is the meat. What is it? Do I just go get a hot dog? Or is it a special hot dog? Should it be Kosher? The list ran from my little tiny spot on earth to the dark side of the Moon and back in less than one second. 

Yes, how would it taste? It would taste different, not better, not worse, just different. 

It would taste of white kitchens with granite and stainless steel appliances. Hours spent planning  the perfect day and cultural outing. Organic meats would be ground up by a young thin man covered in tattoos, his lip sporting a 70's porno mustache or by a woman with a PHD in psychology who is a self taught butcher. This would take place on some farm where all the animals have names and a birthdate. A restaurant would open to serve this very special corn dog. They would serve chili in a ice cream cone, tater tots, high end Mac and Cheese, expensive top shelf whisky and this designer corn dog.

I had already started the research in my brain when a flash of white light crossed inside my forehead. A coffee headache? A small stroke? Or divine inspiration? 

"Hey", I said, nudging his left shoulder, "The 711 is this way, right?" 

He smiled and nudged me back. "Do you think they have french's mustard packs?", I ask.

"No," he said, "They have a French's mustard pump, ketchup, and mayo. We got two corn dogs, Pepsi, and I worked that mustard pump. 

Merry Christmas

Greetings one and all.

I am lucky enough to have two art gigs this month.

#1 is the Little Things show at one of Portland Oregon's iconic gallery's. 

Guardino Gallery. http://www.guardinogallery.com

2939 NE Alberta Street Portland, OR 9721. Open Tues 11 to 5 PM, Wed-Sat 11 to 6 PM, Sun 11 to 4 PM. 503.281.9048 Guardino is located in the beautiful Alberta Arts District in Portland OR.

#2 I am featured artist at the Broadway Gallery in Longview Washington.

http://the-broadway-gallery.com

1418 Commerce Ave. Longview, WA. Open Mon - Sat: 10 to 5:30 pm

360.577.0544

First Thursday openings, 5:30 - 7 pm.

Hope you can come to these galleries to enjoy my work and the work of my fellow artists. 

I hope to see you soon, 

Wishing you all the best, Merry Christmas!

 

 

Bragging rights

Bragging rights! 

I have always wanted to get my education. 

As a person who is severely dyslexic, being able to prove your intelligence and ability takes on more importance.

During the years of grade, middle, and high school. I was tested, analyzed, categorized, demoralized, and pushed through the educational system.

I started working legally at age 14. I earned high school credit through my diversified occupations class and the ability to be in school half the day so I could go to work. I believe this was easer and cheaper for the Kelso Washington school system than to put the time and effort into teaching me. In high school I was told the most I could hope for was to get a manual labor job, and if lucky, to work in a local mill. 

I have been working steadily since with only two summers off. Both times I left the country to get those breaks, and I am grateful and enriched for my adventures in foreign lands.

 I did not give  up my dream of getting my education and  kept chipping away credit by credit, and class by class, to earn a college education. I received an Associates of Applied Sciences in photography, from Seattle Central Community College in 1994 and my Bachelors of Fine Arts in Craft, from Oregon College of Art and Craft this May 2013. I have won various awards including the OakKnoll winery wine label competition  and the Brannon-Boekleheide award for the most outstanding graduating thesis student Oregon College of Art and Craft. 

I was told by one of the members in my thesis committee that my thesis paper was the best paper they had read in the last 17 years, touching for me to hear, since I was told I could never write. I plan to get my Masters of Fine Art degree in the very near future and who knows, maybe my Doctorate. And to those who said I couldn't, and wouldn't and didn't believe I was worth it: I could do it, I did do it, I am worth it. And to those that did believe in me, and helped me do it, thank you. And you know what? 

It's nice to have something to brag about.

What is Art?

                                                                            

Art is diverse, and has many different meanings, and is used in numerous different contexts. Art is hard
to pigeon hole. As human beings we like to organize and categorize objects, things, ideas, and events.
The Merriam-Webster Dictionary describes art as the following: skill acquired by experience, study, or
observation and also the conscious use of skill and creative imagination especially in the production of aesthetic objects.
According to the aesthetician George Dickie, “The work of art is an artifact (or event) upon which some person or persons acting on behalf of a certain social institution ( the art-world) has conferred the status of candidate for appreciation”.
The art-world is art historians, teachers, and professors of art, educational institutions of art, art dealers, critics, collectors, gallery owners, museums, and artists.
Terence McKenna an American philosopher, ethno botanist, researcher, psychonaunt, teacher, lecturer, and writer had this to say about art, “Art’s task is to save the soul of mankind”
I believe George Dickie’s definition of art is the most correct at this current time. I also believe McKenna’s quote on art holds true as well. It is for this very reason that art and artist are so very important to society.
Without artists you would have no beauty, political, social or aesthetic background as a scaffolding to build a society on. Artists throughout history have been the shamans, performers, writers, philosophers, inventors and political activists of their time. Artists are the culturalpreneurs of the times they live in and in some cases continue to effect society hundreds of years after their deaths. Pablo Picasso said it best, “Art washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life.”
It is through the arts that the daily grind if life and its existence is celebrated with all its imperfections, pain, suffering, love joy, beauty and death. With art we celebrate our humanity and touch the celestial.

James Lee Hansen

My friend Larry Cwik, was given the opportunity to meet James Lee Hansen in person. Larry asked if I wanted to tag along. I jumped at the opportunity to meet and visit the home and 13 acre compound of Pacific Northwest sculptor and poet James Lee Hanson and his wife Jane.

Jane gave me a tour of their beautiful home they had just remodeled. James gave Larry and me a private tour of his bronze foundry and studio he built himself, and a tour of his gallery showcasing work he has created. The grounds are wonderfully manicured with regional plants and wide open grassy fields. They showcase Hansen’s sculptures that appear around every bend of the property. At the end of our tour James gave us a signed book of his work and poetry as a parting gift. I was overwhelmed. After a welcoming and inspiring visit at the Hansens I drove home to my humble studio, motivated, and stimulated to do some art work.

Brief information on James lee Hansen.

http://www.jamesleehansen.com/

  

 James Lee Hansen was born in 1925 and served in the Navy during WWII. He graduated from the Portland Art Museum School in 1950. In 1951 James built his first foundry and studio. The following year 1952, receives a purchase prize from the San Francisco Art Association National Exhibition for his sculpture “Huntress” and the Seattle Art Museum Northwest Annual award for his piece “Call”

Hansen has exhibited extensively. The Whitney Museum, The Smithsonian National Gallery of Art, The Portland Art Museum, and Denver Art Museum and many others. Hansen is represented in major art museum collections and in private collections around the globe. Professor Hansen has taught at The University of California Berkeley, Oregon State College, Portland State University, and The University of Oregon.

At the end of May I had the opportunity by being an assistant to take the five day class “Painting from the Intuitive” taught by Pat Wheeler at Oregon College of Art and Craft. In class we created six or more piece of art using limestone clay on handmade wood substrate’s and explore experimental techniques of scraping, where bits and pieces of prior, erased markings and vernacular are exposed. One of the substrates that each student received had a niche they then filled with bundled objects, found items, or something personal. The artis, in the class used everything from stenciling, collage, found objects, Xerox transfers, fabric, photographs, and text. All these elements were combined intuitively and pulled together with a selection of acrylic paints used as stains and finished of with a layer of cold wax that protects the exterior and at the same time brings out nuances in the surface the recall primordial spaces and allegorically reflect ourselves and the connections we all share. Pat’s personality and teaching style make it possible for her students to let go, open up, and experiment in a safe environment. I was impressed how each artist created something unique to themselves and how talented everybody participating in the class was. I have a new respect for the teaching profession and teachers. I am personally still experimenting with the tools I learned from Pat’s class and digesting all the reading and information we received. Here is a quote, and a list from many that I liked from the class material. “The creative is the place where no one else has ever been. You have to leave the city of your comfort and go into the wilderness of your intuition”. (Alan Alda) The following list was found among the papers of the painter Richard Diebenkorn after his death in 1993. Spelling and capitalization are as in the original. Notes to myself on beginning a painting 1.attempt what is not certain. Certainty may or may not come later. It may then be a valuable delusion. 2. The pretty, initial position which falls short of completeness is not to be valued — except as a stimulus for further moves. 3. Do search. But in order to find other than what is searched for. 4. Use and respond to the initial fresh qualities but consider them absolutely expendable. 5. Dont “discover” a subject — of any kind. 6. Somehow don’t be bored — but if you must, use it in action. Use its destructive potential. 7. Mistakes can’t be erased but they move you from your present position. 8. Keep thinking about Polyanna. 9. Tolerate chaos. 10. Be careful only in a perverse way. If you get the opportunity to take one of Pat’s classes. It is pleasure to get the opportunity to open up, explore, create, play, build, be corporeal, and get grubby in a safe environment were creativity and discovery are encouraged. http://www.patriciawheelerart.com/

personal identity

I am very aware of the roles society has mapped out for us, the stereotypes we are encouraged to play. I know that below the surface there is a much richer world happening that is suppressed in a large portion of people due to their environment, experiences, and circumstances of birth. My paintings are inspired by the world I created as a child, as well as parts of myself that I keep concealed. I am using photographs from my past and present, and my family’s past as a reference point. I am using the themes of the mask, personal identity, and human psyche. I want to investigate the joy and mystery that is human life.

La Luz Del Cielo

All architecture is shelter, all great architecture is the design of space that contains, cuddles, exalts, or stimulates the persons in that space.
Philip Johnson 1906 – 2005

La Luz Del Cielo

My project for my final in Beyond Color Theory at OCAC with Michelle Ross, La Luz Del Cielo was activating with color the two triangular window spaces in the hallway by the stairs in the Jean Vollum Drawing, Painting and Photography Building. I used colored acetate normally used for gift packaging and gently tacked it to the metal frame of the window sills using Scotch transparent tape. This project acknowledged the practice of early childhood art projects using colored tissue to create flowers and colored shapes that were placed in windows to be illuminated by the sun. My choice of using primary colors red, blue, yellow, and green refers to the first colors we learn in school as young children.

La Luz Del Cielo also references the gothic cathedral and its obsession with light and Gerhard Richter’s Cologne Cathedral project in Germany, where he used 72 colors and 11,500 squares of glass to replace the south window that has had clear glass since the original colored glass was destroyed during World War II.

My goal was to enliven, add energy, and give the viewer an AH-HA moment.
Mark the groundskeeper thought that students had painted the rocks by the thesis studios and then realized that it was the light shining through my colored windows that made the rocks look red. Brian Shannon’s Drawing Foundations Class was outside collecting natural material to draw and thought that someone had painted the grass red. The class experienced the surprising effect which was created by light shining through my acetate covered windows. A group of first year young women students were walking up the stairs and stopped. “Look at your faces,” one of them said. Their faces were lit up with different colors of light shining through the window. They laughed as they spun each other around in the multicolored light.
These are some of the moments of surprise and joy that I had hoped to create with my colored window installation La Luz Del Cielo.
Jason Berlin

DubbleBubble

I stopped by the local liquor store after work on Saturday to buy a little something.
A man likes a drink at the end of the day; my day ended at ten thirty pm.
On entering the store I passed a man slumping on the sidewalk with his back pressed up against the wall of the store. In his youth he could have been in the ads for Camel cigarettes. He was now past the point of rugged masculinity and was just rugged.
Worn out. He muttered to himself and talked to people who were not visible.
As I exited the store he asked me and the blond women entering the store for spare change. I ignored his plea and got into my truck and got out a piece of DubbleBubble gum. I walked to him as he held out his hand and place the gum in his upturned palm. I walked back to my truck as he stared at the gum. “Is that it” he said, throwing the gum to the curb. “Is that all there is”? I thought, maybe that is all there is, for you sidewalk man. I drove off thinking about the Peggy Lee song “Is That All There Is” and how that small piece of gum would have made him feel just a little better as the sugar flowed through his blood system and brain.
He reminded me of my cousin Phillip who wants it all for free and then is not happy with what he gets. I drove home listening to jazz while chewing bubble gum.

assemblage

Greetings from the Pump House Studio.
I hope this finds you doing well and that life is treating you kindly.
This summer I was invited to participate in an Assemblage show at Annie Meyer Artwork Gallery in Portland, OR. I have always enjoyed assemblage and collage art work
and have done both in the past. This past spring one of my classes at OCAC was with Bill Will. In his class we did a box assemblage project that really helped sharpen my skills in this area. When I am working on an assemblage art piece I am thinking of a story, a personal event, or of a person and how I can convey that to the viewer.
The things and artists that inspire me are my daily life, the Pacific Northwest, my peers, the Surrealists, Man Ray, Joseph Cornell, and Louise Nevelson, not to mention a host of others. If you are in Portland please stop by Annie Meyer Artwork Gallery and take a look at my efforts and say hi.
Enjoy.
All the best, Jason Berlin

Annie Meyer Artwork Gallery
120 NW 9th Ave, Suite 102
Portland , OR. 97209
1-503-224-3150
http://anniemeyerartwork.com/gallery/
Aug 31- Sept 30th
Opening reception Wednesday Aug 31 5-7 and First Thursday September 1st
I also have box assemblage at
Cannibals Gallery
518 NW 21st Portland, OR 97201
1-503-224-2663

Greetings,
I hope this blog page finds you doing well and that life is going in your favor.
As a man I have the luxury of urinating just about any where I please. No back alley, shrub, darkened corner or wall is safe when a man has the urge to relieve himself.
The earliest toilets and bathrooms date back to Roman times. Emperor Vespasian who started construction on the Colosseum also introduced the first pay to use bathrooms and urinals. Romes largest public toilet was near the Theater of Pompey and sat as many as 100. This was all connected to the main sewer in Rome the Cloaca Maxima. Romans still refer to public toilets as 'vespasiano'. The famous outdoor street urinals of Paris and Amsterdam are called vespasiennes after the Roman emperor Vespasian. These urinals were common in the 1930s with more than 1200 in use. In Paris they have been replaced by Sanisettes that are more hygienic and less odorous. Todays newest urinal is the waterless urinal first invented by Klaus Reichardt. The waterless system saves between 15,000 and 45,000 gallons of water a year. The most influential urinal in the world of modern art is Marcel Duchamp’s “Fountain” (1917). His readymade signed “R Mutt”
changed the art world forever. I hope you enjoy my paintings of urinals and my rendition of a fountain.
All the best to you,
Jason Berlin

Black

Greetings from the snow covered pump house.
I thought it was time to update this blog since I am snowed in again and have a little bit of free time on my hands. I have been a fan of the American artist Louise Nevelson and her work.
She is well known for her monochromatic assemblages in black, white, and gold.
They are made out of wooden found objects, crates and the discarded things of the every day. "When you put together things that other people have thrown out, you’re really bringing them to life – a spiritual life that surpasses the life for which they were originally created."
These works are inspired by the work of Nevelson.
I have been working on these assemblages a long time. I am elevating throw away objects and the discarded of the every day, giving them new meaning and elevating them to a higher level than what they were intended to be used for.
“I fell in love with black; it contained all color. It wasn't a negation of color... Black is the most aristocratic color of all... You can be quiet, and it contains the whole thing”. (Louise Nevelson)
I hope you enjoy
Jason Berlin