|
|
Artist Statement:
Being a native from Melrose,
Massachusetts, I was fortunate
enough to be engrossed by a
thriving art community during
my pre-college years. In high
school, I was graced with the
teachings of fine art teachers
Paul Squatrito, Kathy Marsh, &
Chris Riccardi. Through their
teachings, I gained a stronger
affinity toward art and
continued my artistic journey
into college. At the
University of New Hampshire, I
had the honor of studying
under national renown art
professors Craig Hood,
Jennifer Moses, Grant
Drumheller, and Brian Chu. In
2003, I received a B.A. in
Fine Art with a focus in oil
painting and graduated with
high honors, which was an
achievement that no art
student at the university had
done in over 15 years.
Since graduating from UNH,
I’ve had many art exhibitions
and have been solely surviving
off of my oil painting since
early 2006. I make my living
from selling oil paintings at
gallery shows, open studios,
art festivals, and coffee
shops all over the state and
also from being hired to do
commission work for clients. I
am a member of the Melrose
Arts and Cultural Association
(MACA) and also the Salem Arts
Association where I have ...
Further Information
| |
Artist Exhibitions:
June 20, 2009. Featured artist
at Starbucks Coffee on 200 W
Cummings Park Woburn, MA 01801
only for this Saturday.
Opening reception from 9am -
1pm. Chance to meet the artist
and view original oil
paintings and prints.
June 7 - 30, 2009. Front St.
Coffeehouse on 20 Front St. in
Salem, ...
Further Information
|
|
Artist Galleries:
HOURGLASS ART & GIFT GALLERY
458 Main St.
Melrose, MA 02176
ARTIST ROW
Salem Arts Association
24 New Derby St.
Salem, MA 01970...
Further Information
|
|
|
|
Collections:
JOHNNIE'S ON THE SIDE, 138
Portland St., Boston, MA
02114,
USA
CAMBRIDGE HEALTH ALLIANCE, 195
Canal St., Malden, MA 02148,
USA
101.7/92.1 WFNX TRUE
ALTERNATIVE BOSTON RADIO
STATION,
Boston, MA, USA
I CHEF GOURMET ITALIAN CUISINE
RESTAURANT, 1345 Mass Ave,
Arlington MA 02174, USA
AMICI'S ...
Further Information
|
|
Commissions:
JOHNNIE'S ON THE SIDE, 138
Portland St., Boston, MA
02114, USA
CAMBRIDGE HEALTH ALLIANCE, 195
Canal St., Malden, MA 02148,
USA
101.7/92.1 WFNX TRUE
ALTERNATIVE BOSTON RADIO
STATION, Boston, MA, USA
I CHEF GOURMET ITALIAN CUISINE
RESTAURANT, 1345 Mass Ave,
Arlington MA 02174, USA
AMICI'S ...
Further Information
|
|
|
Reviews for James C Long Jr:
|
|
|
ONE EYE OPEN: Art by J.J. Long chosen for governor’s inaugural event
By Daniel DeMaina/melrose@cnc.com
Thursday, January 11, 2007 - Updated: 05:29 PM EST
J.J. Long’s oil paintings are grounded in realism, but the final compositions are reminiscent of the films Waking Life and A Scanner Darkly. In those movies, actors were filmed and then, in post-production, animated. The result is extremely life-like animation but with a surrealist quality, as if the images were plucked from a lucid dream.
Long’s landscapes, portraits and still lifes possess that same quality: each figure is distinguished and true, yet seems to stare back through a filter, pushing at the edges of each line and stroke. For the viewer, the paintings are as tangible as distant memory, with large, clearly defined boundaries and opaque details filling in the rest.
That ephemeral quality of visual snapshot may be why one of Long’s paintings was featured at Gov. Deval Patrick’s North Shore inauguration reception at Merrimack College on Friday, Jan. 5.
Reception organizers were soliciting local artists to display artwork of North Shore scenery at the reception. Long submitted five samples and was chosen along with 25 other artists to take part in the event.
The chosen painting ‘Enchantment,’ a landscape of Spot Pond in Stoneham, captures the timelessness of nature nestled within that suburban oasis with the aspect of capricious childhood vision.
For Long, 25, a Melrose resident, his paintings are simply products of a singular vision — he has been legally blind in his left eye since birth.
“It’s weird, I never really think of myself as being legally blind. Sometimes I forget because I’ve been seeing the same way since I was born,” he said. “I think it’s important to let people know this is how I see.”
Long recalls a fellow artist once telling him there is a slight haze over his paintings and everything seems to be down a shade.
“After she said that, I was like, ‘I think you’re right.’ I think it looks how it’s supposed to look,” he said.
His impairment has become his strength, as Long translates from cornea to canvas to present a view of the world that only he can see.
“You can tell it’s my work, so to speak — it might have to do with a slight haze or my shadings,” he said. “I try to paint realistically and my style is realism. I paint a lot from photographs and stuff. When I look through my left eye, I can’t discern any detail at all.
“I don’t know how I’d paint with 20-20 vision. I wish someone could look through my eye and say, ‘What the hell is this?’”
Interestingly, the artist with a skewed vision of reality fell into realism as his predominant style.
“I just paint that way because I think back, when you’re in kindergarten or grade school, I always thought the best art was the one who makes it look the most real. They made something look as real as possible, that’s how you know how someone’s a good artist,” he said. “That’s not the way it is at all, but that’s just the way I was brought up, so to speak. I don’t favor realism over another type of art. I like all styles of art but that’s what I just kind of locked into from the beginning.”
“I’ve tried abstract and love abstract, and it’s not that I can’t do it, I’ve just built up my reputation as a realism oil painter.”
A clouded future
Long could not see his own future when he first arrived at the University of New Hampshire as a freshman. He chose UNH because of its strong liberal arts background, and his desire to get away from Massachusetts for a time while not straying too far from his home in Melrose. With his focus on a liberal arts education, becoming a painter was not an idea that had even crossed his mind.
“I knew I wasn’t going to be a rocket scientist,” Long said. “I think my sophomore year of college, one of my introductory painting teachers asked, ‘What’s your major?’ I said, ‘I don’t have one right now,’ and he said, ‘Well, why don’t you paint for a living.’ I said, ‘All right.’”
Long considered leaving UNH to attend a school like MassArt, but professors counseled him that applying himself and working hard to improve would dictate his success, not which institution bestowed his degree.
“Plus, I had already built up my friends there,” he said. “I had a great education up there. The professors were really good.”
After graduating from UNH in 2003, painting quickly fell by the wayside as Long sought financial stability.
“I’d say for two years after I graduated, I didn’t paint at all, just because I had immediate bills and stuff like that,” he said. “It’s not that I didn’t want to paint. I just didn’t think I could paint and make a living off of it.”
He hopped from office job to office job, all the while lacking fulfillment as he sought to strike a balance between a man’s needs and an artist’s heart.
“Month after month you’re paying off schools loans, and you’re like, ‘Wow, I’m paying for an education I’m not even using.’ I felt there was something missing, sitting by a cubicle and not doing what I love to do,” he said.
On his 24th birthday — “I did that on purpose, so I’d remember” — Long cast aside his reservations and began work as a full-time artist. For almost two years, his life has been painting as he tries gaining exposure through showings in Melrose and at galleries.
Gaining recognition
The arts community in Melrose, and the Melrose Arts and Cultural Association <<<<(MACA) in particular, have helped make Long’s transition to full-time artist a viable and sustainable decision.
“MACA has really been good for me, as has the Hourglass [Art and Gift Gallery] downtown,” he said. “The arts community here is just amazing, there’s so many different opportunities and so many unbelievable artists. No one I’ve come across has an ego and everyone’s willing to help each other out.”
That willingness to help out fellow artists led Long to be featured at Patrick’s inauguration reception. He heard about the event from a fellow artist, who forwarded him e-mail with information on the event. Thus, ‘Enchantment’ became part of a historic event.
‘Enchantment’ and other of Long’s works are quiet, serene and calm. That might surprise those who know Long from his other passion as lead singer in the band Asystole, whose heavy drums, thundering bass and distorted guitars are a pummeling assault on the listener in the vein of bands such as Tool, Sevendust and Mudvayne.
“I tell people all the time I paint my happy trees during the day, and then at night I turn into the devil,” Long said with a laugh. “It’s my kind of balance in nature, I guess, as a human. You can’t just be happy all the time and you can’t be angry all the time.”
Asystole have started to make a name for themselves. They were just sponsored by Jagermeister, who will pay for band merchandise, CDs and give the band an opportunity to open up for national acts.
“Someone once asked me, ‘What would you rather do, playing in a band or painting the rest of your life?” Long said. “I want to do both the rest of my life.”
******************************************************
NEW ARTIST J.J. LONG VOWS TO FOLLOW HIS DREAMS(Arts &
Entertainment)
By Liz Jennings, Melrose Weekly News, Published: September
22-28, 2005
Local artist James Creighton Long Jr. (J.J.) is
chasing a dream.
After receiving his BA in Art from the University of
New Hampshire, in Durham NH, he returned home to Melrose and
did what many students do; turn their back on their talents
in the name of paying off school loans, and bills. He did
office work for two years, where he says he made good money,
but discovered there was something missing.
In March, on his 24th birthday, Long made a decision to
embrace his talents, turn his back on corporate America and
become a full-time artist.
Since then he has participated in at least three art shows,
one of which featured his work on Newbury Street. He makes
his living by doing commission work, and though he says he
is on a tight budget he has the support oh his parents and
is able to make a living off selling his paintings.
The main medium he works in is oil painting. His studio
walls and ceiling are covered with his artwork, displaying
landscapes, still art, and even the Eye of Saramon from the
hit movie the “Lord of the Rings,” an image he says he just
couldn’t get out of his mind.
“I’m trying to make it happen!” says Long. “I’m young and
single, I don’t have too many responsibilities and I want to
build a reputation for myself making music and art.”
Long says that he has always loved art and he took courses
during high school but was never known as an artist. It was
not until his sophomore year of college that he realized it
was more than just a hobby.
He has developed his own website, www.jjartworks.com, where
his art can be viewed. He is also a member of the Melrose
Arts and Cultural Association, a new group in Melrose that
promotes local artists. He is currently displaying his work
at Canvas Alley Gallery, 231 Haven St., Reading through
Sept. 30th.
By day Long paints but by night he sings in a heavy metal
band called Mr. Ect., which has played all over
Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Rhode Island.
Their next show is set for Sept. 30th at the Half-Time Bar
and Grill on Cape Cod, where he says the band has quite a
following.
|
|
contact artist
