Time? It’s about 5:40pm on a chilly Friday evening. Location? We were on Highway 5 heading towards a gallery in a small town outside of Sacramento called Woodland. The driver is one of Sacramento’s rising stars, the young masterful painter, Jeff Musser. As we cruise in Jeff’s blue 1986 Volvo Station Wagon with a rebuilt engine, he reflects of his early years as an artist.
Jeff spoke of being an only child, born and raised in Sacramento, California. Son of a father who repaired vacuum cleaners and sewing machines, and his mother, a social worker, he was taught the value of hard work from an early age. At age 8, his parents realized that he spent most of his free time drawing extensively instead of playing video games and baseball. He had to find ways to entertain himself and drawing was that outlet. So he spent many hours rendering images from his favorite comic books, and sometimes, his father’s playboy magazines. He recalled quite vividly the definitive moment that his parents became life long benefactors. They showed their commitment to his success in art, by mortgaging their home, and paying for one of the top art school in the country.
We continued along highway 5 involved in a deep discussion about his life’s journey. Soon, it was evident that we had long passed our exit towards the gallery. We were 8 miles off course. Jeff swiftly hit the next exit and maneuvered the car in the opposite direction. We eventually entered the exit titled East Main Street with about another mile to go. With newfound focus, and avoiding another mishap, we continued to share his experiences as he drove towards the gallery.
Jeff transferred to the school, Art Institute of Chicago in 1997 and finished with a BFA degree in visual communications and painting in 2000. After art school Jeff applied his prestigious art degree to a “9 to 5” job with an advertising company. He designed happy meals for McDonald, and rendered images for Disney. Though the salary was good, he hardly found time for his true passion, painting. However, the following year proved to be the beck and call of destiny.
He got laid off right after the tragic September Eleven attacks in New York. Thinking, his lost of employment was a message in disguise, he embraced the challenge and decided that he would be a full time Artist. Soon, Jeff found out that the Cliché starving artist was in fact a reality, at least for him. As his savings dwindled, so did his food supply, and after a while he could count each rib on his body. He did find salvation at the food stamp office, and learnt to balance $150.00 to purchase a month’s worth of food. This experience proved to be a blessing to Jeff because it was throughout this struggling time; he developed an impressive body of work.
The tenacity and rigor lead to an opportunity to paint for Oprah Winfrey. He did portraits of her dogs, Sophie and Solomon. Elated and impressed, she wrote him a letter acknowledging his masterful depiction of the dogs. Quincy Jones also came across Jeff’s work and was so impressed that he flew him to Rome to work on a project, “We are the future.”
His impressive works on display at this gallery also parallel the attention Jeff got from celebrities. A small crowd gathered around the artwork that was on display. They titled, “ Heather”, and “Small Vaughn (Study)” to name a few. This young masterful painter expressed the poetry of realism as he skillfully massaged paint on his canvases, giving homage to such greats as, Johannes Vermeer, Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio, Gerhard Richter, Lucian Freud, and Jenny Saville. There is no technical compromise. His colors are acute, expressing light in its upmost sensitive detail, and rendering subjects of intense dramatic energy. The story of each subject is evident. Proportions and composition visually captivating, the audience cries for explanation. Commonality, in this show, the tattoos, they dramatically spoke messages of, beauty, despair, love, obsession, and acceptance.
Why painting, Jeff? He recalled Quincy Jones, and his friend John, made a request for his presents in Rome to work for their organization. During his stay, one of his highlights aside from being in Rome for 8 days, and aside from the art, and human history that is in Rome, was meeting Carlos Santana. Jeff remembered telling Santana of what a great fan he was, and how he recalled his parents playing Carlos’s records. Santana replied with a thank you and then Jeff asked:
So, out of all the instruments, why the Guitar? He [Santana] was in mid sip of taking a drink and he stopped! And he looked at me. And it was one of those looks that I thought, is he going to f… me up? He lowered his drink and smiled, and he said, “You know what, in all the years no one has ever asked me that question before.” And I said I didn’t mean to offend you, [and Santana replied] “No, no, no. It’s not that at all. It’s just that no one as ever asked me that before.” He sort of scratched his little goatee for a second, and said, “When I found the guitar, it just felt right, it felt like a bolt of lightning hit me and I never questioned it… ”
Jeff said Santana’s answer resonated with him. He recalled trying many different aspects of art before he found painting. He did silk screens, metal work, fabric working, photography. “I did graphic design because I knew I could pay my bills after I graduated, but once I found painting, and fully got into it, I just loved it. Even when painting makes me … angry, and I want to slash it with a razor, I still love it.”
We enjoyed the small gallery on Main Street in Woodland, a small town outside of Sacramento, the man in the corner of the room plucking his guitar strings as he covered a Michael Jackson portion of song, “we are the world”, the various chatter of art from the spectators and critics, the other artist Gorgeous George, tattoo artist, and George Strend, photographer, and returned to Jeff’s 1986 Volvo Station Wagon that he parked by an alley headed back to Sacramento.
Check Jeff Musser’s work can be seen at his website www.jeffmusser.com, and the Verge Gallery in Sacramento.
The Blue.
