Jeffrey T. Baker
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Sitka Studio Open House

1/2/2013

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If sweeping coastal headlands, herds of wild elk, and the waving grasses of a windswept estuary aren't enough to entice you to the coast this winter, perhaps the opportunity to meet a few artists while touring about the Sitka Center for Art and Ecology will be just the nudge you need.

This coming Monday evening the Sitka Center for Art and Ecology is hosting an open studio event that is free and open to the public. There will be food, drink, and a chance to meet the writers and artists in residence at Sitka this winter. My studio will be open for the duration with a number of completed works and works-in-progress on display. I do hope to see you there!

Learn more about the Sitka Center for Art and Ecology's residents from the 2012/13 winter season.
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Studio Amenities

11/16/2012

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There are a few studio amenities that, now that I've enjoyed them, I can't imagine going without. 

Perhaps the most notable is having a sink in the studio. For years I had to walk down a winding hall every time I needed to clean a brush, which inevitably led to impromptu conversations with studio mates or waiting by the bathroom for someone to finish their business before I could even access a sink. How luxurious to just take four steps over to a faucet and then turn back around and pick up working again. 

And then there's heat. You can just turn up the heaters in the studio when it gets cold. They won't blow a circuit and the button to their thermostats isn't jealously guarded for nine months out of the year in the interest of cutting energy costs. This means no numb toes and no need for fingerless gloves while trying to mix paint. I can even let go of the fact that one of the baseboard heaters is on a prime working wall which now must simply be used as a prime works in progress storage wall.

These seem like simple things, right? Yet I've never had both in any studio space I've ever occupied. Additionally, the functionality of this studio is greatly enhanced by the fact that it is temporary, and all the items in it (excluding a few tables and chairs) I've had to bring in for the interim. This helps minimize the clutter which so quickly takes hold in a permanent studio space. Work surfaces cannot be monopolized by stacks of vintage frames and one won't spend an hour looking for gum arabic amongst drawers and drawers of drawing supplies. 

As it is so often the artist who renders their own studio sub-standard through a combination of materials hoarding and untidy work habits, having a short-term work space might ultimately prove to be a more productive arrangement as it necessitates a periodic uprooting and subsequent reevaluation of both working practice and materials. This experience has certainly informed some new thinking about how to arrange my permanent studio, which continues to languish in a state of near completion, as it has for months. I doubt I'll be able to plumb in a sink, but heat is within the realm of reason, as is a serious purging of items that do not immediately contribute to the creative work.
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Open Studio Event and Artist SALE!

5/9/2012

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This coming weekend I'll be participating in the annual Spring Open House at Troy Studios in SE PDX. This Open House will be unlike any other I've done in the past as this event will also serve as a STUDIO LIQUIDATION SALE! 

As I'll be moving from the Troy Laundry Building in June I've decided to let go of a few things rather than try and re-incorporate them into my new studio space (see also suburban garage). Ridiculously low prices are guaranteed on items like:

oil paint, book cloth, coasters, frames, office supplies, Jeffrey juvenilia (invest now in priceless relics of my formative years as an artist), toys, magazines, books, comics, furniture, flags, apparel, and so much more

So come on by to say hello, see some works in progress, sift through art materials/inspirational fodder, and to help me bid the laundry building farewell after so many years.

Troy Studios is located at 221 SE 11th Ave. Portland OR 
Friday, May 11th from 5-9pm
Saturday, May 12th from 12-6pm

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Open Studio & Sale Event | Dec 2-3

11/19/2011

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Troy Artist's Studio Winter Sale

In coordination with many a talented maker (see list below) at the historic Troy Laundry Artist's Studio Co-Op, I will be throwing wide the studio doors on the 2nd and 3rd of December to share works-in-progress and (hopefully) sell some past work. Please tell your friends, join me for a bit of refreshment, and take some time to enjoy the creative efforts of fifteen artists on two levels of this fantastic old Portland laundry building.

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In Process

8/30/2011

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Just two works currently in process at the studio. . . 

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Opening Up

4/2/2011

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Opening your studio to the public is fraught with complication. 

The first, and most pressing problem, is that the studio is not set up for the public. Storing your staple gun and glass cleaner on the lowest shelf makes perfect sense until you have toddlers running around your space. Your walls are a repository for work in progress, not a neutral (or even particularly clean) space for the presentation of finished work. Ultimately, the act of making the studio suitable for company automatically renders it unsuitable for working— a bit of a conundrum since people are, one assumes, coming to see a bit of the artist in their "natural habitat."

Furthermore (and this is really the hardest part for me as an artist), it is odd to be so exposed. When you work in isolation for so long you come to accept the faults and little journeys each work takes as it moves towards completion. You have a relationship with the locations of objects, and there is meaning in how the space is arranged that is deeply personal. To throw open your doors is to invite in a public with no context as to why this drawing is always put down next to this drawing on the worktable, or why all the lights are oriented towards a blank portion of wall. There are stories there, and they are personal, and you think about them being encountered with great brevity and a paucity of background information and you start to feel a bit self conscious. 

When I went to bed last night I thought about the first few lines of one of my favorite poems. It is titled Open House, and is written by the American poet Theodore Roethke. It illuminates, with an admirable simplicity, what I've been trying for express for the last three paragraphs:

My secrets cry aloud.
I have no need for tongue.
My heart keeps open house,
My doors are widely swung.


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Open Studio Event on April 1st

3/25/2011

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That's right people— here's a chance to see a considerable amount of work in progress by yours truly as well as visit a labyrinth of studios filled with everything from mask-makers to video artists.

Please note that I will only be participating on Friday night as Saturday needs to be set aside for continuing to work on the upcoming OCAC show. Nevertheless, I do hope you can stop by to chat and give me some feedback.

The address is 221 SE 11th Ave and I'm in Studio 10 on the upper (3rd) floor. The studio is just two blocks off Burnside, at the famously difficult to navigate Burnside/Sandy intersection.

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Back to the Beginning

2/23/2011

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In the studio with great regularity now to prepare for a show in May. The past three days have included:

-making a bruise of the sky
-structuring a new website and blog
-cutting small panels to fit a selection of found frames
-reacquainting myself with the leafing process
-freeing my fingers of fingerprints 
-pleading with the Burnt Umber
-pulling paint
-erasing away the unforeseen traces
-writing a press release

And now I am just waiting for the snow to fall.
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    For over a decade Jeffrey T. Baker has explored the elegiac and sublime through his mixed media artworks. He harbors an unapologetic predisposition for the decayed and imperfect. 

    Presented here are his thoughts on artistic process, inspirations, tutorials, and information about related upcoming events.

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    Posts prior to 2011 visit Subjective: The Artful Life

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