Artist Jesse Mosher

''I gun for painted images that are as simple as I can make them. When working from photos, I seek to present the truest expression of the subject's soul. I always try to avoid leading the viewer's eye or telling them what to see. A great portrait for me is one that is open to interpretation, and can hold different meanings. It contains as little of my ideas or ego as possible, and in doing so is free to be what it is.''
-Jesse Mosher

photo (c) Trisha Cluck 2007

As I mentioned before, I am beginning to feature people I find particularly inspiring on this blog. What better way to start than with painter Jesse Mosher from San Francisco, California. I stumbled upon his shop on Etsy.com, during my own (very limited) time selling jewelry on Etsy, and found his work remarkable. Using reclaimed wood and leftover paints from various sources, Jesse Mosher captures the personae of musicians, writers, and cultural icons in his images. He kindly agreed to answer my questions for your reading pleasure. Enjoy.


1. Tell us an odd fact very few people know about you.
I used to make chandeliers and lampshades for clients like Bill Gates, Manny Ramirez and Mick Jagger.

2. Describe the beginning of yourself as a painter. Is it what some would refer to as a “calling”? Did you have an experience or mentor that got you started? Just something that’s always been with you?
I always saw myself as a successful old painter, and knew that was the reward for a lifetime of painting.

John Lennon and Paul McCartney

3. Describe the atmosphere most conducive to your creativity.
I do my best work on stage in front of a crowd, I feel they push me to paint faster, more accurately and without thinking, (as in being in the zone).

4. Paper or plastic?
I'm a paper man.

5. Morning person or night owl?
I'm a night owl, after midnight I get a second wind.

Bob Dylan

6. Favorite music?
I have a tattoo that says I love rock n roll, that means punk rock, blues rock 60's stuff, garage rock, also folk and country(old time) blues, I guess what people call roots music.

7. Favorite books?
I love the beat writers, like Jack Kerouac, William Burroughs, also Tom Wolfe, Hunter S. Thompson, and lots of biographies.

Leslie Feist

8. Favorite films?
I like Gus Van Zandt's movies, also Cohen bros, a lot of documentaries, that doc Dig was great.

9. Favorite food?
As far as food goes anything pretty much works, I've gone without enough times to not be picky, Thai food is great.

Jeff Beck

10. Favorite kind of weather?
I love the fog and grey like here in San Francisco.

11. Pets?
I don't have any pets but like cats and dogs.

12. Aside from commissions, what draws you to paint a musician?
My favorite people to paint are the extremists, people who represent an architype that they created all on their own, the iconoclasts or cultural revolutionaries, journeymen and women, the veterans of art.

Keith Richards

13. Tell us about a couple friends/family who influence your life and work.
The people who influence me in art are, Joanie Bredin-Price, an old family friend that I first took art lessons from as a kid. She has been working a long time and reminds me that it's never over. Also Trish Cluck, a great photographer who has been around alot of good circles and is a veteran artist. My grandfather used to paint in England during WWII, and his paintings inspired he as a kid.

14. Is there a mission behind your work?
The mission behind my work is to leave an impact on the greater culture around me in my lifetime and beyond. I am constantly comparing my work and accomplishments to other painters to judge my own progress, like milestones. I want to make around 2,000 paintings in my life, and sign over 100,000 pieces. So far I've made 1,250 paintings as of yesterday, and signed around 16,000 pieces. I consider myself still learning how to create up to my potential, which should be around 400 pieces a year.

Bob Marley

15. What has been most helpful to you on the business side of being an artist?
What is most helpful to me business wise is to try to do some aspect of the thing every day. Whether responding to emails, priming wood, painting, following up on patrons on the phone or whatever, I do something to alot of things everyday. A wise artist once told me, it's not the one angle that pays you, it's a lot of angles that add up to an income.

photo (c) Trisha Cluck 2007
Jesse Mosher and his mural at The Beat Museum in San Francisco.

16. Give an aspiring artist some honest advice.
If you really want this art life, you must see it as a journey, and the goal is to survive. After 10 years of solid work at this you should have something really solid that is your own, so take the longview. The more you can sacrifice within reason, the more you will gain in the long run. The people I've met who really have something that is their own sacrificed mightily to get it. The greatest reward is not praise or money, it is knowing that you have the ability to make something powerful with your mind and hands. Keep that in mind as the goal of being an artist.

17. What keeps you going?
What keeps me going are different things at different times. Sometimes its a realization about all that I've survived to get here, sometimes it's a positive pride feeling about all I've accomplished, Sometimes it's the idea that if I don't make it nobody else will. Sometimes I feel like the world's only specialized art machine, capable of nothing else. When the chips are down, I often feel like the only way out is to paint my way out of a corner, but the bottom line is this is the dream for me, it's what I'm made to do. --Jesse

photo (c) Trisha Cluck 2007

For more information on Jesse Mosher and his work, see below:

http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5554990

http://www.etsy.com/profile.php?user_id=5554990

http://www.myspace.com/jessemosher