Jeff Musser

Me: I am attempting one of the most difficult things one can do in American in this economic climate; I am trying to make my living as an artist. Sounds crazy right? When I stop to think about it sometimes I might as well say "I'm opening a unicorn shop!" It's kind of a dumb dream, but it's the only one I have, and at this point in my life I don't have anything else to fall back on, so I'm stuck with being an "artist." About my work: It's a balance between what I have to paint in order to live, and what I paint for myself. No longer are tattoos the ink splotches of the damned;tattoos have become legitimized fine art that has resulted in acceptance my mainstream society.   But it is only now in Western, particularly American culture that tattoos are becoming an expression of individuality rather than being about belonging to a community. This expression of individuality, I believe, is one of the defining languages of my generation, a language I have adapted to convey messages about my life. I use the blank canvas of my skin, incorporate existing tattoo symbols, develop my own iconography, and create a world that only exists within a painting. I can create a world where the ugliness of my life becomes aesthetically satisfying when it is given artistic form, showing that it can be contained if not expunged, thus making it less traumatic, and revealing the beauty and social relevance of tattoos. <!--StartFragment--> <!--EndFragment--> <!--StartFragment--> <!--EndFragment-->