Director's Note

 

Jason Puccinelli

San Andreas, California

born 1971

 

89-93                        Fine Art                        S.F. Academy of Art

1993                          Painting                        S.F. Art Institute

 

 

About the Artist

 

Jason’s work came to my attention while he was with Vital 5, a local Seattle artists’ group that countered the successful Sutton/Berens/Culler group represented by the Lawrimore Project.  Vital 5, known for its guerilla art, placed a miniature of the red Alexander Calder sculpture below the giant sculpture itself, prominently sited at Seattle’s Olympic Sculpture Park.   “So cute” is a phrase most artists hate to hear when their work is described, but in this case it really was “so cute” and the depiction fit.  Vital 5, had a short cycle like most experimentation groups, and Jason evolved to become his own artist with no shortage of projects to his credit.  

 

Jason’s “Confessional Booth” was an installation unlike any in a traditional church setting, but rather created as a futuristic white, sanitized looking box for people to enter.  He, as the artist, sat inside, ready to hear visitors’ stories.  In a space enclosed by walls to make you feel safe, he experienced the surprising candor of strangers even though affirming it was just an art experiment.  

 

Jason’s versatility doesn’t stop here.   In a show at Vermillion, Capitol Hill’s alternative gallery space, he featured paintings, his first learned talent as an artist.  The paintings depict birds that mimic Audubon Society drawings, but with a twist in their hidden narrative.  

 

It was Jason’s artist statement that struck me most.  He is self taught, and the message he wants to share with the world is not ambiguous, but clear and honest. 

 

Jason’s artist statement:

 

In 1982, I painted a group of penguins in watercolor.  It was my first bird painting, and I submitted it to our elementary school art contest.  The painting won best of show and fueled my naïve appetite for fame and fortune as an artist.  While other kids were playing baseball and riding bikes, I was wearing a tie, sitting at the dining room table and painting birds.  I was the Alex P. Keaton of the art world.  With the help and encouragement of my parents, I went to art school where I soon discovered that painting watercolors of birds was not cool.  Nor was wearing a tie.

 

20 years later at my parent’s house in Mexico, I started painting a bird for my Mom and Dad as a thank you present.  In the process, I rediscovered an old passion, an old friend: my first muse.

 

Creatively, this collection of paintings does not aspire to an illusion of fame.  But has become my atonement to that old friend that I tuned my back on as a teenager.

 

I could not have painted these canvases without the loving support of my parents Peggy and Jerry Lucas, and my best friend and love Liz Potter.

 

 

 

Rocket  - Featured Installation for MadArt in the Park

Early one summer morning, a rocket fuselage smashed into earth right in the middle of Cal Anderson Park.   The two-story projectile will no doubt capture the imagination of park visitors, compelling them to draw close.   From what strange place did it come?  Is there any life form aboard?  One can only discover the truth when they walk up and touch a few buttons.