Jamie Newton

Resume

SCHOOL

I started off rather informally. I studied photography early on.

The dark room was a magic place. I loved watching the print arrive, coming out of the white of the paper.

I remember looking at a lot of photographic work. Ansel Adams, of course, and then on to Minor White and Edward Weston. Aaron Siskind was my introduction to abstraction - a significant change in a way of seeing. I looked at things differently after that. I started framing and composing in my mind's eye because of those photographic experiences.

1976   Group Show   Inland Empire Photography Competition,  Weston, OR - juried
	Open Division Trophy
Portrait Division Trophy
1976   Group Show   Northwest International Exhibition of Photography,  Puyallup, WA - juried
1978   Group Show   Tacoma Art Museum,  "Photography/78",  Tacoma, WA - juried

WORK

At this point I found out what standing in a trench, knee-deep in mud does for your motivation to get an education. I did learn to run a backhoe. And I got incredibly wet and cold.

SCHOOL

I have a terrific junior college instructor to thank for one of those eye-popping moments. She taught pottery (and was the first real artist I had as a teacher). I took the class not really sure what I was looking to do. It was a studio class but she kept dragging in a slide projector and showing us the most amazing stuff. Peter Voulkos. Rudy Autio. Paul Soldner. I had no idea you could do that kind of work in clay. I'd never heard of these guys. I built with slabs and fired quite a bit of raku. The guy who next taught the class (also an artist) told me to look at David Smith.

1979 Group Show Fort Steilacoom Community College, Steilacoom, WA - juried

First Place Purchase Award

AAS - Humanities (Ceramics, Drawing), Fort Steilacoom Community College, Steilacoom, WA 1981

WORK

Needing to pay the rent, I ended up back in a muddy ditch (it rains a lot on the west side of the Cascades). The guy who pointed me toward David Smith also said I should go on to school. "Don't worry how you'll pay for it, just go. You'll figure it out when you get there." He was right.

SCHOOL

I studied painting and sculpture. I'd also wander off to the philosophy department frequently enough to make my art department advisor sigh. I started looking seriously at abstraction in painting and sculpture. It was a thrill recognizing the intelligence in a Pollock painting.

1983 Group Show Washington State University Gallery II, Pullman, WA

Bachelor of Arts - Humanities (Fine Arts, Philosophy), Washington State University, Pullman, WA 1983

WORK

Back to construction work. Ran a backhoe, organized crews and determined I needed to get on to something else. I did a lot of painting in here, some of it pretty marginal. Some nice sculpture (I'd learned a bit of welding).

SCHOOL

I thought for awhile I was going to teach, and did for a short bit as a student, but ended up more jazzed about my own work. Studied painting and sculpture. Literature. Here, another eye-opener. A painting professor introduced me to the sumi brush. The sumi brush is one of those transporting tools that can take you out of yourself. It also makes you look at Chinese and Japanese painters with new eyes. It harkens back to that mystery of the dark room, and raku as well - the ability to surprise yourself.

Bachelor of Arts - Fine Arts (Sculpture, Painting), Portland State University, Portland, OR 1989

WORK

Music store, book store (both of which I loved even though most of my salary went to buy the product) and some more construction work send me back to a vocational education (what a novel concept).

1986   Top Display Design Award - US Western Region,   A&M Record Co.
1987   Top Display Design Award - US Western Region,   Warner Record Co.
1990   Second Place Design Award - Nationwide,  Sybex Books Inc.,  Alameda, CA
1990   Second Place Design Award - NW Region,  Sasquatch Books Inc.,  Seattle, WA

SCHOOL

WORK

Trained in the rudiments of architecture I went to work in AM/FM- GIS (Geographic Information Systems) - databases attached to maps. It's not architecture, but it is a spectacularly interesting field that pays the mortgage, keeps me out of the rain and leaves me enough time to get the real work done. 

1998   Solo Exhibition, Portland Center for the Performing Arts, "Apollo & Hyacinth" Exhibition,  Portland, OR
2001   Solo Exhibition, Vergotis, Portland, OR
2003   Group Show, Hanson Howard Gallery, Ashland, OR

PUBLIC AND CORPORATE COLLECTIONS

SELECTED EXAMPLES OF OTHER WORK

2001   "The Ballad of Bobby Merge",  Playbill and Flyer Design,  HEAR Arts Center,  New York, NY
1998   "Apollo & Hyacinth",  Set Design and Painting, Program and Flyer,  Newmark Theater,   Portland, OR
"Sages, Saints & Poets",  Original Watercolor for Program and Flyer,  Concord Choir,
Portland, OR
1997   "Hot Lava Love Lamp - The Best Of Rumble In The Redroom 2",  Playbill and Flyer Design,
Pulse Theatre,  New York, NY
1996   "Rumble In The Redroom",  Playbill and Flyer Design,  Pulse Theatre,  New York, NY
1994   "Generations For Peace",  Flyer Design,  Satori & Chrysalis Choirs,  Portland, OR
1994   "Missa Gaia",  Cassette Cover Design,  Concord Choir,  Portland, OR
1994   MS Walk & Run,  Shirt Design,  Portland, OR
1993   MS Walk & Run,  Shirt Design,  Portland, OR
1986 - 1987   Editorial and Feature Cartoons,  Vanguard,  Portland State University,  Portland, OR
1984 - 1986   Editorial and Feature Cartoons,  Pierce County Herald,  Puyallup, WA
Editorial and Feature Cartoons,  Argonaut, University of Idaho,  Moscow, ID

Artist Statement

I have nothing to say and I'm saying it.
JOHN CAGE

An artist cannot speak about his art any more than a plant can discuss horticulture.
— JEAN COCTEAU

Frank Zappa is most often credited with saying, "Writing about music is like dancing about architecture."

I find it difficult to say very much about what I do and yet, at the same time, I may blather on at length about influences and connections that seem to only tangentially relate. It's like seeing in the dark, the periphery is where the information is.

Art to me is the books I read, the music I listen to. It's the paintings I look at, the food I eat and the ridge I hike along.
It's my dog.

Art is the only twin that life has.
CHARLES OLSON

Everything is interwoven in such a way that any one piece cannot be pulled out and made sense of. I think that's true at just about every scale. Nothing operates in a vacuum. I think our Western mind has been trained to pull things apart but we keep coming back to the realization that things are integrated in surprising ways. The Tao of Physics. I expect the folks in the East probably think we're a bit slow for finally getting around (or back) to this concept.

Qualities that are appreciated as 'advanced' in American Abstract Expressionism have been applied for centuries in Eastern art: gestural methods; … calligraphic imagery, free linearism, and aggressive or rapid brushwork; highly asymmetrical compositions…; atmospheric or flat fields of color; a spontaneous approach to art-making that includes the acceptance of accidental effects; and the notion of the act of painting as a self-revelatory event…

JEFFREY WECHSLER in Asian Traditions

I remember what a thrill it was to first pick up a sumi brush. For me it was like opening your mouth and finding you can sing. All this thought, all this feeling, just flows out the end of your fingers. It's a way of tying all of your various thoughts and influences together, a kind of funnel that brings all of that thought down…through the brush and onto the paper. You start feeling, when it's working right, like you are dancing. It's really wonderful.

When you start working everybody is in your studio -
The past, your friends, enemies, the art world,
And above all, your own ideas - all are there.
But as you continue painting, they start leaving, one by one,
And you are left completely alone.
Then if you're lucky, even you leave.
— JOHN CAGE

When it works your hands are not your own.
You forget who you are.
There is nothing but the work in front of you.
It feels a tremendous act of ego to put your name on it.