For 5 Wednesday nights in a row in the Fall of 2007, local North Shore MA artists Jon Saulnier (www.myspace.com/ amorphousform ), Matt Macguire (www.myspace.com/21stcenturyfunfactory), and myself collaborated on 3 paintings that we all created from our imaginations. All paintings are acrylic on panel and are 16x20". Our process was very simple. Grab a bunch of beers for some creative fuel, grab whatever paints and brushes we had available, and run wild with whatever our artistic minds desired.

The first session we just drew on the panels with pencil, hashing out some ideas and staying loose with our sketches. We'd each draw for about 10min on one panel, and then swap to the next artist, draw for another 10min, swap to the next artist, and so on and so forth. We agreed from the beginning to have as much artistic freedom with the paintings as we wanted, meaning we wouldn't take it personal if someone erased something another artist had done or added something another artist didn't like. We just ran with it and had fun, feeding off of each others artistic inspiration. After the first drawing session, we started right in on the acrylic painting with some sharpie to create some bold outlines and sculpt certain areas. We kept the same process throughout the 4 painting sessions we did, but instead of 10min intervals we shifted to 30-45min. intervals because painting takes a bit longer to render with. As our paintings progressed, so did our alcohol consumption and our creativity…hahaha. Who would have thought Tequila shots and wine were such great artistic stimulators?

Both Jon and Matt are tattoo artists at the Purple Scorpion and Lightwave tattoo parlors respectively with stellar portfolios in flash and illustration, so I wasn't sure what to expect from myself heading into this project being an oil painter with none of their artistic background. I'm glad to say it was a humbling experience being in their presence and I think we all learned a lot from each other artistically. Also, it was just a cool way to chill with friends and forget about the stresses of every day life for one night, which I haven't experienced for a while. All 3 of these paintings are currently available for purchase at the Artist Row Gallery on New Derby St. in Salem, MA through Nov. 4th. We're selling them for $200 a piece and you can contact me or the gallery if you are interested in a purchase. Prints are also available for these paintings, just shoot me an email or give my studio a call. We'll be doing some more projects in the near future (probably on a bigger scale) so stay tuned, and let us know what you think. Thanks for tuning in.

Cheers,
-J.J.