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Born and raised in Sacramento California, Jeff Musser attended The School of The Art Institute of Chicago and earned his B.F.A in early 2000. Upon graduation, he thought that his daytime job, designing Happy Meals for McDonald’s, would leave him plenty of time to paint in the evenings. But once the economy tanked after 9/11, he was another face in the sea of jobless Americans with tons of free time. One the upside, he now had all day and all night to paint. On the downside, he now had to deal with issues of rent, bills, supplies, food and how to overcome the much-romanticized notion of a starving artist.
Despite literally being a starving artist living on food stamps while in Chicago, his tenacity has paid off and he now works as a full time artist.
Emerging from their unsavory, often times unjustified reputation of the recent past, tattoos have gained increasing prominence in the past decade. Life magazine estimated in 1936 that 10 million, or approximately 6% of the American population had at least one tattoo. A Harris Poll done in 2003, nearly triples those numbers and estimates that 16% of Americans now have one or more tattoos, with as many as 40% of the 26 to 40 year old age group with at least one. “People are now realizing the power tattoos have. I feel the art of tattooing has the power to bring one a fresh sense of purpose; the faith in the possibility of making a new harmony out of the tragedy of life. This expression of individuality, I believe, is one of the defining languages of my generation. I am intrigued as to why people express themselves in such a permanent manner, why they use the symbols they use, and how I can learn from that language to express issues I have about my life, says Jeff Musser. I use the blank canvas of my skin, incorporate existing tattoo symbols, develop my own iconography, and create a world that only exists within a painting. I can create a world where the ugliness of my life becomes aesthetically satisfying when it is given artistic form, showing that it can be contained if not expunged, thus making it less traumatic, and revealing the beauty and social relevance of tattoos.”
With classical technique and one particular painting entitled, “Maybe now my paintings will be weird enough for you pseudo art intellectual assholes,” the artists work might be described as, what author Donald Kuspit calls, “Art that is neither traditional nor avant-garde, but a combination of the two. Work that brings together the spirituality and humanism of the Old Masters with the innovation, humor, and criticality of the Modern Masters.”
Jeff lives and works in Northern California. Feel free to send him a note.
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