Art Adventures blog&stuff

Art Adventures Ed.1 7/08/18
Jesse Jacobs, Marry me?
A questionable museum date

So a couple weeks back I went out on a whim to meet a cute guy at Museum London, the morning after a great date. I came early because I had heard there was an artist talk with Bev Pike, I hadn’t checked out her work yet, but she seemed to have a cool name so I thought, ‘why not’?
Surprised, amazed, speechless are all words that fail to describe the intensity/other-worldly experience of seeing Pike’s work alone in a semi-lit gallery. Her work is enormous, gigantic even. I can’t remember ever seeing work on that large of a size/scale, especially not on paper. I had so many questions, the were just lost in the artwork as I sat and waited for the talk to begin. She spoke very quietly and softly, which in one way, translates into her work. These gigantic scary grottos, painted in such soft hues of pinks, purple and greens, shimmering under the museum lights. I felt like I could just walk through the painting and enter an entirely different world. Her work feels like a bourgeois escape into a different reality.
Near the end of the talk I slipped out to meet my date downstairs. We slowly walked through the different sections of the museum and kind-of studied each other and how long each of us took to look at a piece and engage about it (in the most flirtatious way possible). We circled around the vintage local business advertisements many times until… Jesse Jacobs. The new love in my life. I think even my date was a bit intimidated by Jacobs, just by the fact that I was practically drooling over his artwork. You see, Jesse Jacobs is a printmaking god. The second we turned the corner to see what was next, my eyes practically jumped out of my head like Bugs Bunny’s when he sees Lola Bunny.
I took the introduction to printmaking course last year and definitely struggled in some aspects but did have the understanding of the level of difficulty. Jacobs’ prints are insane (in every good way possible), right on the spot, lined up perfectly. Not only are they extremely intricate/complicated designs, but he also chose to do 4-5 colours (even more difficult). His work is playful and seems also to be very serious in some ways, very childish/animated style but has many obvious influences of the Dada movement and Robert Fones. The best part is they are silkscreen, my FAVOURITE type of printmaking. I can’t even describe how badly I want to buy one of his prints let alone meet the artist himself. We stood there for over an hour gazing into the works, and sat down to play the animated game, Spinch. I’ve never thought or really taken video games/video game art seriously until now, the level of complexity in animating his common characters and the overwhelming colours adds to the game. Although I sucked at the game, my date enjoyed that part the most. As much as I loved Pike’s work, I wish it was Jesse Jacob’s that gave the walk through and artist talk. Not surprisingly, my date drove me home later, and we never spoke again. At the very least, I know my love for art is forever.

Stay tuned for more of my art adventures,
With much love,

Irma Bajramovic