{"id":1517,"date":"2010-02-03T23:49:11","date_gmt":"2010-02-04T07:49:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/anotherbb\/wp\/2010\/02\/jesse_edwards_-_semper_fi_arti\/"},"modified":"2010-02-03T23:49:11","modified_gmt":"2010-02-04T07:49:11","slug":"jesse_edwards_-_semper_fi_arti","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/anotherbb\/2010\/02\/jesse_edwards_-_semper_fi_arti.html","title":{"rendered":"Jesse Edwards – semper fi artist"},"content":{"rendered":"

After she bungled a question<\/a> in the Miss Teen USA pageant, contestant Caitlin Upton become her own event horizon. No light penetrates past her media coverage. Jesse Edwards<\/a>‘ painted her pixelated to the edge of her form. His version of Pointillism is a critique on fame that lights up the Web, like fireworks in a night sky, except it trails after its subjects forever. Even if Upton becomes a Rhodes Scholar, her misadventure in front of a microphone will be there whenever anyone clicks on her name.<\/p>\n

\"jesseedwardspag.jpg\"Detail:<\/p>\n

\"jesseedwardspagdetal.jpg\" Pageant<\/i> (oil on linen
\n40 x 36 inches) was part of Edwards’ show at Flatcolor Gallery<\/a> last month. I saw it on the last day and didn’t intend to write about it, but it stayed with me. <\/p>\n

The rap against Edwards in Seattle is that he’s all over the map. It’s true. Then there’s the fact of him. Below, the opening of a profile<\/a> I wrote in 2006:<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

\nJesse Edwards lives in a downtown studio that is packed with his paintings. They lean in stacks and protrude in piles. His bed is a sack on the floor, which is littered with fast food packaging, art books and objects he uses for his still lifes, including a skull, a skateboard, pop cans, bongs, porn magazines, shredded dolls, a toy cop car and the odd piece of fruit.<\/p>\n

He has a computer covered in graffiti on a wrecked table beside half an office chair, foam spilling out, that he found on the street.
\nCreature comforts are not his thing.
\n“I’m an artist,” he said. “I want to paint in oils like the old masters.”<\/p>\n

An aspiration to old master painting is not the first thing that comes to mind on meeting him.
\nHe looks like a thug. At 29, he’s tall and lean with thick muscles running up his tattooed arms and down his torso. His smile doesn’t often reach his eyes, which bore into people.<\/p>\n

“I’m an ex-thug,” he said. “In the old day, I’d stomp people who disrespected my tags.”<\/p>\n

Stomp?<\/p>\n

“Put them down so they don’t get up. I was a kid. I didn’t know any better.”<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

His landscapes look as if they’re sweating – open stretches of summer fields working hard for the money.<\/p>\n

Landscape<\/i> oil on linen 60″ x 40″<\/p>\n

\"jesseedwardslandspeblu.jpg\"Some of his ceramics are tributes to his adventures as a graffiti writer. (Image via<\/a>)<\/p>\n

\"jesseedwardsceramcans.jpg\"The art world breaks artists’ hearts. First to break are those who ring wrong bells when they walk into a gallery. Edwards can’t change that, anymore than Caitlin Upton can, but she could learn a lot from him. He’s stout-hearted and keeps on keeping on. <\/p>\n

White Fear<\/i>, oil on linen, 38 x 28 inches<\/p>\n

\"JesseEdwardswhitfear.jpg\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

After she bungled a question in the Miss Teen USA pageant, contestant Caitlin Upton become her own event horizon. No light penetrates past her media coverage. Jesse Edwards‘ painted her pixelated to the edge of her form. His version of Pointillism is a critique on fame that lights up the Web, like fireworks in a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-1517","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-uncategorized","7":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/anotherbb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1517","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/anotherbb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/anotherbb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/anotherbb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/anotherbb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1517"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/anotherbb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1517\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/anotherbb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1517"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/anotherbb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1517"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/anotherbb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1517"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}