Today we’d like to introduce you to Jim Bliesner
Hi Jim, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today?
As an artist I got started by copying characters from comic books. My mother saw it and enrolled me in a high school that trained commercial artists. I choose a different path in college (Philosophy) and when in graduate school in Boston I wandered into an artist colony on Gloucester Harbor, saw David Pollacks painting style and asked him to teach me Plein aire painting methods. I have been doing that ever since. As one paints one confronts obstacles and by solving those obstacles one learns how to paint better. That and selected classes from good painters allow one’s style, materials and methods to evolve.
Moving to San Diego I could paint anywhere and everywhere all year and did. A major step occurred when I decided I needed to paint the great cities of the world and went every four years for six weeks (Paris, Venice, Jerusalem, Istanbul, China (a 3000 year old city, Rio), etc.. I followed with major local exhibits.
A second major influence was teaming up with artists from Tijuana and venturing into conceptual, community engagement installations. This adventure into sculpture, ideas, lead me to participate in various international biennales where I gained more exposure to materials, ideas and collaborations.
I couldn’t make a living from art with family to support so I did community economic development. I developed my own theories about how to do this and one major one was how to link my art and building community. I learned one can change the way a community looks and feels by painting it or by changing the way it is experienced economically, physically and emotionally by organizing. I eventually taught these ideas at UCSD and Woodbury Architectural School.
But I have aways painted, drawn and built art. Now I can do that in the context of the San Diego Museum of Art as President of the SD Museum Artists Guild.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
There are always obstacles and in my case, they came both from the creative process and from everyday life events. I remember the biggest obstacle came when I lost my paying job and could not find work anywhere, I looked. I only had unemployment and food stamps with my two children and wife. I decided to double down on my painting to make some money. I decided to go to Paris and paint the city for six weeks while my unemployment checks came. But I did not have the money. So, I invited anyone who had ever bought my work to subscribe to a painting I would do on this trip at a reduced price. I would have an exhibit on my return and would sell for a higher price. Enough people subscribed to pay for the trip and hotel. I have followed the same process for the future trips.
I learned from that, not only how to paint better since the Impressionists taught me so much while in Paris museums, but in the middle of a down cycle, grab the next higher ring…climb up high rather than wallow in defeat.
So, I applied that norm to my organizing and started a community struggle to cover a freeway coming through my neighborhood (City Heights). No one had done that in California. Plus, I agreed to head up a major political effort o “Tax Big Oil and Fund Mass Transit. The first was a creative journey that lasted ten years and the second led to a real job. A job which gave me the freedom to develop and implement a city-wide strategy for transforming communities economically and physically.
As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
At its core my work now starts with continuing to draw and paint. In addition, I have developed a program to implement community art installations working with emerging and established artists to build art which has a lasting impact on the environment around it. For example there was a vacant lot on University Ave, that attracted trash and becoming a homeless camp with additional trash. With a small grant I invited area artists to receive an 8-foot post and $100 in exchange for creating a “Character”. A sculptural form using found objects. Sixteen artists turned the lot into a sculpture garden for nearly two years, visited by many and launching several of the artists into museum exhibits. Third, I am creating and installing various steel sculptures throughout City Heights for permanent display. Finally, I am serving as President of the San Diego Museum of Art Artists Guild and exhibit my paintings in various curated exhibits held by the Guild. This role will also allow me to implement various community engagement art installations as part of their “Atelier” project doing experimental art.
I continue to present at various academic conferences throughout the world at this time focused on “Art as a Strategy for Economic Development”
If we knew you growing up, how would we have described you?
I grew up in a family of six children in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. First memories are of two succeeding government housing projects, then on the South Side in a flat without a furnace. My dad burned to death there when I was 12. There were many Polish and German immigrants displaced by the war. I excelled in athletics (cross country/captain-wrestling/city and state finalist-track/city and state medalist)at Boys Tech High School and studied art for three years. I became involved with an evangelical church in HS and went to one of their colleges, dropped out as a junior and transferred to Boston where I eventually received an MA in Social Ethics and became involved in progressive politics around civil rights and the Vietnam War.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://jimbliesner.wordpress.com
- Instagram: Jim Bliesner
- Facebook: Jim Bliesner
- Other: jdbarte@gmail.com
