Today we’d like to introduce you to Jerry Oliver.
Hi Jerry, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
After spending several years through the 90’s and early 2000’s as a professional musician and guitar teacher in my native hometown of Minneapolis, Minnesota I moved to Nashville in 2003. Following several more years as an independent traveling troubadour and recording artist I spent a couple years recording an album of original music with a well known producer in 2019 and 2020 and then the pandemic hit and everything came to a halt. The album that was supposed to come out on a small label was put on hold and a tour I had scheduled was cancelled. It was a disheartening time.
So I decided to write and record another batch of songs and record them by myself on my laptop in my tiny home studio and put them out myself. Since I have always been a lover of art and drawer since I was a child (my lyric notebooks always filled with doodles and drawings) I decided to do the album artwork myself and created a mashup painting/drawing/collage that I used as the cover. I had an incredibly joyful experience making it and the artwork received more attention than the music did. I was amazed and quite happy about it. Since I had nothing but time on my hands during the lockdown I decided to dive in and realized this was a deep seated love I’ve had since childhood. Painting brought me a new peace and healing to my soul that I fully embraced and it also started to bring in some much needed income.
The producer of the album that never came out commissioned me to paint he and his wife’s dogs along with other commissions that started coming in. As things started to open up again I applied for a juried showing at a small local gallery and got in. I began to apply for art markets and as a result started selling a lot of paintings and enjoying this whole new art scene and world more than I ever expected.
After going through some hard personal relationship issues and disillusionment with the music business I decided to take a break from music and go full time into art and I’ve never looked back. I love it so much.
Over the years I’ve returned to music part time with a fresh perspective and integration with my art. I’ve recorded an album of instrumental guitar pieces that coincide with paintings and when I perform a music gig I don’t sell typical merch, instead I have a pop-up art display.
These days art comes first and I regularly engage in showings, markets, commissions and finding new avenues to show my paintings, drawings and collage work. I’m also a student of art history and am always exploring and experimenting in new mediums.
In the art world my business is known as Jerpoet Art and I sign all my paintings as Jerpoet. The name comes from the fact that I see my art as visual poetry and have also written poetry all my life and also paint poem paintings containing words and images along with handmade poetry books which I call rustic chapbooks and mini-zines.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
I work mainly in watercolor and ink on high quality papers, acrylic on canvas and collage. Recently I have been working on some multimedia pieces and larger works that combine acrylic, oil pastels, collage and other mediums all in the same work which have many layers and thick textures that give the pieces an impasto surface and depth to the paintings.
I am known for bold colors and unique combinations of color as well as a unique drawing style when working on portraits and landscapes with watercolor and ink. Since my interests are wide ranging and I’ve come to art later in life I work in both abstract, intuitive wild works as well as realistic representative pieces. I love it all and want to explore all I can. At first I was concerned that perhaps I needed more discipline and should concentrate on a more consistent style but more experienced artists that I have come to know have encouraged me to keep doing what I’m doing and not worry about that. They say they always know it’s me and that my style comes through whatever I’m working on so I just go for it and people seem to always dig it and I now have many collectors continually returning for more or commissioning more pieces.
In terms of your work and the industry, what are some of the changes you are expecting to see over the next five to ten years?
It’s a wild world we live in with many constant changes but I intend to keep it real and keep making hands on art as long as I am able. As an artist I detest AI and believe it is a technology that is a cause of decline in human creativity and takes away from the truly creative spirit. I am deeply interested in human connection and creativity. The hands on human toil of the artist and his materials is what makes art resonate with so many souls and the hundreds of people and customers I meet every month at markets and showings feel the same way.
I do think artists need to fight for the rights of their works and protect them from being stolen and or manipulated by what’s going on with AI.
Pricing:
- I create art that ranges from 2.5×2.5 inch miniature art squares on recycled cardboard to paintings that are as big as 2ft x 4ft and sell for $1700 or more. Many factors go into the price of a painting other than just size.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.jerryoliver.com
- Instagram: @Jerpoet
- Facebook: Jerpoet Art
- Youtube: @Jerpoet
- Soundcloud: Jerry Oliver
- Other: https://www.bandcamp.com/jerryoliver
