Jeremy Earhart

Simply said, Jeremy Earhart is a flat sculpture artist. He’s an
artist with no horizon. It’s hard to distinguish Earhart’s daily life
from his art where they collide in his Brooklyn studio apartment. When
I first walked into Earhart’s home I was blown away by the space.
Creatively, it’s an artist dream with the amount of room and storage.
Equally, it’s also a child’s dream to play hide and seek inside.  Two
levels, the apartment has maybe 8 rooms and little crevices, filled
with materials, tools, and 4×8 size sculptures. In this creative
wonderland it is very apparent how involved he is in his art. Earhart
truly sleeps, works, and eats around his creations.

A graduate from Memphis College of Art as a painter, his original work
consists mostly of printmaking and painting. “I’m still a decorative
painter, but it’s crept into thinking about other ways to manipulate
space.” Now 7 years of working with Plexiglas, it is the foundation of
what makes this artist so unique. Earhart’s interest in art began in
his hometown of St. James, Missouri by having an art teacher in high
school that simply knew what she was talking about. Earhart credits
his teacher Barbara Bryan with the utmost respect. “I didn’t struggle
in art school and I saw a lot of people who did, she made all the
resources available to us.” His understanding of materials and
creative work ethic in school allowed him the freedom and time to
develop his current medium.

These sculpture installations began as he was painting atmospheric
paintings and applying drifts of color using Plexiglas, putting ink in
the cracks and creating lines. Experimenting with materials
constantly, his work is not only incredibly involved but extremely
labor intensive. Initially, Earhart’s pieces are a process he admits
is very deliberate and thought out. Before the physical labor aspect,
a lot of time is spent researching his subject matter and theme. He
reads a lot. Once he has his overall concept he makes thumbnail
sketches on Mylar plastic, which he sees as a smaller version of his
work. Using several hand power tools, he traces the image onto the
Plexiglas, cutting and buffing to create the final shape. “It’s not a
very forgiving material,” the artist explains. It’s seems from
beginning to end he’s emotionally and physically invested in every
aspect of not only the final product but also the entire creative
process. “I like materials so much, I can’t choose just one.”

As an observer, Earhart’s flat sculptures are extremely entertaining.
The size, colors, and shapes are wild and intoxicating. But there’s
truth and meaning to it all too. His last gallery theme ‘patriotism’
included cannons, wings, stars, stripes, and other shapes and lines
familiar to images used on the dollar bill. When I asked the artist
about the giant “angel wings”, he reminded me that’s what I saw,
others may see a bird and he likes that his work is open to your own
interpretations. “It is flashy, but there’s meaning. It can’t be all
show. There has to be a layer of concept for me to want to make it. I
don’t want to spell everything out; I want it to be open-ended. It’s
interesting to see someone else’s take.”

Earhart admits seeing people’s reactions to the sculptures and
controlling an environment is fun to do. With the amount of work he
puts into each piece, he describes the work very personally. However,
ultimately he sees his work out and open in the public eye. “It’s so
dramatic, your in your world, than you place it out in public,” says
the artist who’s newest work is said to be a little heavier in
painting and hopefully adding more materials to his Plexiglas
foundation. “You make something and it kind of sticks. The Plexiglas
just stuck and now it’s more about form and shapes of the glass.” His
work is displayed in a bar on Washington st. in Tribeca called
“Entwine” and the Brooklyn based band “Free Time” has used his pieces
in their live shows. We will keep you posted on the artist upcoming
galleries and shows.

You can see more of Jeremy Earhart’s work at
http://goffrosenthal.squarespace.com/artists.