The epic visions of Jeff Frost :: Artist interview
- 2 days ago
- 6 min read
Agent Peach ::
Jeff, I’m quite thrilled you took the time to share with us! THANK YOU. Can you tell us a little story about your work and how long you’ve been creating?
Jeff Frost ::
So there I was, squatting in an abandoned house in the Mojave Desert in the middle of nowhere. I chased off a methhead on a motorcycle and a snake living in the walls. It would periodically pop its head out of holes in the sheetrock. The snake was after newly hatched baby birds in another room. I wasn’t about to let that happen, but it required constant vigilance. The methhead, birds, and snake weren’t the only wildlife. A large lizard under the doublewide received a very exuberant dog-like pep talk when I discovered it munching on a scorpion, “You’re a very good lizzie! Yes you are! You eat every scorpion possible! GOO BOI!” And then, I swear to you, this lizard became my friend. It let me get two inches away from it with a camera lens and just hung out watching me work after that.
I squatted for a month painting optical illusions inside and over the top of each other for an ongoing series, Circuit Board Species. Eventually the police showed up and pointed guns at me, decided I was harmless after a search, then left me to my work. I slept on the roof of my fading-red 1992 Chevy Blazer looking at the Milky Way, and showered standing on the passenger-side rubber floor mat while water trickled from a black Coleman bag hanging from the corner of a broken window. It didn’t matter that I was naked in the front yard because there was no one there to see me.
That was about 10 years ago near Joshua Tree, California. I wrote my first song at 14. I’ve been creating nonstop my entire adult life, and for a large portion of my pre-adult life. In high school I filled notebook after notebook with drawings and teenage angst.
AP ::
Remind me to buddy up with you when we are a little closer to the actual apocalypse!
Did you get a formal education as an artist or are you self taught - beyond your current schooling in Glasgow?
JF ::
Some of both, but most of the things I know I taught myself, be it art theory or how to play the guitar. One of my coping mechanisms since childhood is locking myself away and fiendishly working on projects in my lab (aka bedroom). I’ve learned a variety of instruments (piano, guitar, bass, drums, synth programming), audio engineering along with it, and drawing.
At around age 30 I realized a music career was not going to happen and with a broken heart started a photography career by getting an associates degree. Then I wound up learning time lapse, film editing (which was like primitive audio recording), and sound effects design (none of which were taught at the art school). Along with all of this I started teaching myself how to paint large-scale optical illusion murals and incorporating them into film projects.
These things have taken me around the world in ways I never could imagine, which is what’s standing in for an undergrad degree and how I got into the Glasgow School of Art in Scotland. I’m working towards an MFA, but it all feels absolutely crazy. What sense does this make to do at this point in time? I don’t know, but I still feel like I’m in the right place and my life has never really made sense on paper anyway.
AP ::
It must be feeling extra crazy to be witnessing what’s happening in the states from such a distance. How is your move to an entirely different country influencing your current creations?
JF ::
I’ve had to adapt to living in a city after three years of living off grid in mountains and deserts. I went from near total isolation to a city center and it has been challenging.
The first semester I convinced myself I wasn’t doing much. Then I had to put together an “in-progress” portfolio filled with everything I was experimenting with, learning, doing, and reading for a class. The sheer quantity was astonishing.
Turns out I was reading a book a week not counting fiction, started or experimented with at least ten art projects, interviewed quantum optics researchers at University of Glasgow, went to exhibitions, and even began staging my own shows of other students' work in my flat. Frankly, it was way too much. I’m trying to balance things out now. I’m failing.
AP::
Wow! You’re so impressive!! What is your biggest inspiration for creating right now? What are you drawing from?
JF ::
Trees. I love them dearly. Whatever emotional state I’m in, good or bad, no matter how severe, walking through trees, leaning on them, speaking to them, and listening to them always makes me feel more grounded and connected. Trees give even as we chop them down and exacerbate anthropogenic polycrisis. Robin Wall Kimmerer (Braiding Sweetgrass) recently made a comment on the Atmos Magazine podcast that really struck me, ‘What if the land loves you back?’
The utter lack of retributive justice and pettiness in trees and the land inspires me. It seems that no matter how awful humans are if we begin treating land right it will simply love us back. That’s a lucky thing for the human species. If nature even remotely adhered to our conventions it would conspire to wipe us off the face of the Earth by the end of the day. And, as a collective, we’d deserve it.
AP::
Can’t agree more about trees. Especially the giants we have in California. And yes, nature is entirely patient with us… maybe too patient…
You’ve been making pieces in several mediums for years - from painting to photo to installation… Is there one you favor the most? Why?
JF ::
Right now I’m working on a variety of installations utilizing optical illusion murals and video art elements. I’m working out how immersive environments might be of service to trees and land by facilitating emotional connection to nonhuman kin.
AP ::
Do you have any dreams of people you’d like to collaborate with?
JF ::
I’d love to work in a collective with artists and non-artists alike who have strengths that are completely outside of my specialties (and vice versa) including a variety of scientists, tattoo artists, fingernail artists, architects, gardeners, actors, DJs, singers, and dancers. I have specific ideas that involve all of these art forms that have been rattling around in my head for some time now.
AP ::
Count me in for the epic crew you’re dreaming up! What is your biggest goal in your creative practice for the year ahead?
JF ::
So many big goals, but right now I’m researching methodologies for rewilding not just the land, but my own soul. I’m rewilding time. This is a practical grassroots way to break the death grip of capitalism. Benjamin Franklin’s ‘time is money’ axiom literally is linear time. It’s quite easy to break linear time. For example, set a timer for 15 minutes (or longer if you’re brave) and walk across the room slowly just once using that entire amount of time. Walking this slow is surprisingly challenging for being so easy, but it genuinely puts you in a different place. Like hallucinogens, it has the neuronal effect of connecting regions of the brain that normally wouldn’t be connected.
Linear time is brittle. Inner rewilding is a natural rejection of fascism. Outer rewilding of the land restores the proper hierarchy of land first. We all belong to the land; there is no way to truly subvert this, but why would you want to? These activities foster inner and outer connection. I guess in a word then, the big goal is connection.
AP ::
I love this walking meditation you’ve suggested and I am absolutely going to do it.
You’re a real gift, Jeff! I look forward to following your work more closely and seeing what you get into on the other side of the planet.
Thanks for being you.
— Agent Peach
PS : Speaking of meditation - Enjoy this hour long loop of the Transmutation House by the amazing Jeff Frost.
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