10 (0r so) Questions with Jacob Heustis

What part of the creative process do you secretly enjoy the most and what part do you avoid until the last minute?

There was another question about daydreaming, and I like this part the best. When I’m just sitting, thinking, and the ideas come. I start taking notes, making some sketches and the work takes shape. Then after that I love laying down the first stroke of paint on a blank canvas. I often want to stop there. As for avoiding, I am a certified professional procrastinator when it comes to phone calls, emails and updating the website.

What’s the most memorable reaction someone has had to your work?

There was a guy leaving the gallery of a drawing installation in which there was no work hanging. Instead, every inch of the walls in the gallery had been completely covered in graphite from floor to ceiling using a pencil.  He was passing a friend on the stairs and said “Don’t even waste your time, it’s terrible.”  Then he paused and said “No wait, actually….you have to go in there! “

What is one thing you’ve tried and will never do again?

Skydiving. I did a tandem jump. I said I would go if my younger brother ever wanted to. It was a free fall from 13,000 ft to 5,000 ft. I was the last one out of the plane.

When we opened the shoot it was tangled up, and didn’t fully open. The instructor was telling me to prepare to cut from the shoot, free fall again, and then we’d go to the spare. We ended up getting the shoot untangled and landing safely, but that was enough for me.

What’s a mistake that ended up influencing your work in a good way?

It’s more like a mind trick than a mistake, but when I first started painting I stretched two 7 x 7 ft canvases with the intention of covering the surface with a single, solid color of paint, but leaving a small area open just off the center to reveal the underpainting. I made the underpainting thinking it would not be seen except for the small exposed area. When I returned the next day I was pleasantly surprised by what I had done and decided not to cover it up. What I had painted was better than what I had intended.

What’s something you’ve become obsessed with lately?

My refurbished vintage SX-70 Polaroid camera. Benjamin Franklin, Bruce Springsteen, Widow’s Bay, and an instrumental band from Los Angeles called SML.

What’s something that consistently restores your energy?

Being on a boat or sitting by the ocean.

What do you think people misunderstand about creative people?

How hard they work. People think…. it’s art, it’s play, it’s extra-curricular. But the artists I know are some of the most disciplined, resilient, hard working people out there.

What kind of objects or images are you instinctively drawn towards?

Children’s drawings. The drawings done by kids before they have a concept of what’s ’good’ or ‘‘accurate’, or what gains approval from others. That’s a hard thing to get back to.

What was the worst job you ever had?

Cleaning cubical walls on the 8th floor of an empty office building, solo. I lasted a full two weeks.

What’s a sound you love?

A boat engine just above neutral, waves crashing on the beach, and some very tasty guitar feedback.

What is a smell that instantly takes you back to a memory?

Irish Spring soap. It takes me back to a camping trip with my Dad on Dale Hollow Lake. I was probably 9 or 10, it was after dark, we had an old Coleman lantern for light, and took a bath in the lake next to the boat. Never felt cleaner.

What’s something you’re learning to trust more?

Myself.