Jamie Lee Hoffer
Los Angeles, California
I received my BFA from Tufts University and the School of the Museum of Fine Arts Boston in 1980, majoring in Printmaking and Art History. In 1982 I moved to San Francisco where I started working as a graphic designer, then relocated to Los Angeles in 1991. I was born and raised in Asbury Park, New Jersey. My creative drive and love for the arts was apparent from a young age. My mother recognized this early on and offered me painting lessons with her talented Hungarian friend, Magda, an eccentric artist and terrific cook. To this day garlic and turpentine remain my two favorite scents.
How and when did you start creating art?
I’ve been creating all my life. My mother is very creative and my brothers and I were always doing wonderful fun projects with her. I knew I was an artist for as long as I can remember.
What media and genres do you work in?
The encaustic medium found me after a long experimental journey with many other mediums. It has all the elements that inspire me and push my boundaries. I am in awe of it. It leads me and I follow. It is a love affair full of mystery, excitement, patience, and anticipation. I paint abstract, though at times a figurative element may slip in here and there. I often will include organic material in my work and am finding I am eager to work more 3 dimensionally.
Who or what are your influences?
Besides nature – the way the wind moves things, water, trees, sky, light and how they connect in harmony and balance – Rauschenberg, Dine, Cy Twombly, Motherwell, Matisse
What was your inspiration for Dreams of the Alchemist?
After I read Paulo Coelho’s “The Alchemist”, I found myself lost in thoughts, images, and feelings relating to his beautiful story. The vision and beliefs of the alchemist – creating something out of something else – is my vision. To me, “Dreams of the Alchemist” is a moment in an Alchemists mind when everything is possible, past and present are one, paper and metal, love and sadness, all there, in the moment, in the ether.
Describe your creative process?
When I am immersed in the process and lost in the moment - that magical place that exists universally outside myself that I believe all creative people tap into - I am in my truest place. The truer to myself I become, the easier it becomes to connect. My work is an exploration of that connection between me, all else, and the space between the connections. A cartography of the dimensional journey.
What are you working on currently?
At this very moment I am working on a very large encaustic piece. The board is 60” x 48”. It’s challenging for many reason, one being that it’s pretty heavy and I am always moving the board around when I work, and I am 60” myself.
What are your near/long term goals as an artist?
To do art and only art without having to continue to do graphic design for an income. To apply to artist residency programs and go as often as possible, meet more artist and like minded people, and see as much art as I can.
Where can people view/purchase your work (gallery, website, etc)?
Right now I am in Laguna Gallery of Contemporary Art in Laguna Beach, CA. My art can also be viewed and purchased at www.jamieleehoffer.com
Dreams of the Alchemist - Encaustic, oil stick, copper, found objects and silk tissue on birch board, 30” x 40” x 2”, 2013
Earth Words - Encaustic, bamboo, silk tissue, and cotton Hanging Sculpture: 18” x 24” x 9”, 2013
Floaters Over Red Seas - Encaustic and graphite on 2” birch board Diptych, 32” x 16, 2013
Spirals Number 1, Encaustic and Oil Stick on 2” birch board, Diptych: 60” x 40”, 2012
Spirals Number 4, Encaustic and Oil Stick on 2” birch board, Diptych: 72” x 48”, 2012
Wind Chimes on Mercury, Encaustic, oil stick, copper, bamboo, gelatin print on silk tissue on birch board, 30” x 40” x 2”, 2013
Artist Website
All Images @ Jamie Lee Hoffer
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