About Jay

    Let me start off by saying it's tricky putting myself and motives into words, but after some thought, I hope the following paragraphs help grasp just why I create and enjoy the work that I do.  

    From the earliest I can remember, I always knew I was a bit different.  It wasn't only me who picked up on this, the biggest support crew, my parents, did too.  I had a peculiar interest in completing tasks differently and loved to color and draw at every chance I had.  My parents immediately enrolled me into a specialized school called the Summit School; where a more personalized teaching approach was implemented.  This specialized environment encouraged and focused on the importance of a personalized approach of learning differently and being creative as the cornerstone and foundation of a strong education.  I feel that the result in learning in a smaller environment and being more "hands on" led me to getting into the unique art I make today.  

   In 2002 I graduated from Archbishop Spa;ding and went on to attend Towson University, outside of Baltimore, Maryland.  After floundering around for the first few years with no real idea of what I wanted to major in, I choose a degree in electronic media with a focus in radio.  That was likely a mistake, I just loved music.  Classic case of the heart overruling the brain, right?  In my senior year, I did a few internships at some radio stations and found part time work in promotions with 105.7 WHFS.  This career would have left me on track for a lifelong ramen diet.....but then it happened.  In my final semester before graduating, I signed up to take a 100 level design course to fill some credits.  This course is the reason I'm writing this little bio and you're reading it, no joke.  Sometimes you meet someone, many times in a student teacher context, that completely consumes you with inspiration.  Churchill Davenport was his name, and he changed my life.  Not only did he introduce me to my medium (Color-Aid), but saw in me what I knew was there, but couldn't quite find.  Everything I had internalized as being different and creative was channeled through his lens of teaching.  He was a full time professor at MICA (Maryland institute College of Art) and wanted to do some extra work at Towson.  Towards the end of the course, he informed us that we could resell our Color Aid paper(very pricey) to the next round of students but I decided to begin cutting off one corner from each sheet.  He looked at me perplexed and said, "can you glue those pieces to this sheet of paper and not stop until you've filled the entire sheet"?.  The first official "Jart" was now created, titled "Urban Jungle"(pictured to the right).  Leaving the class and going onto graduate in 2006, I knew this artwork was something different, a bit abstract, and colorful....kind of like myself.

   Over the many years following my experience in that fateful design course, I have found that my true passion and dedication surfaces when creating these artworks.  I have been living in Washington D.C. since 2011 and have found a happy home in the quite neighborhood of Mt. Pleasant.  While I am fully employed by the federal government and enjoy working for Congress at the U.S. Capitol, nothing brings me more joy than dedicating my focus on these works of art.  In every artwork I pour my full attention and dedication to make something unique and to the absolute best I think it can be.  When I was younger, I recall my grandfather being annoyed at a restaurant and needing to straighten their all framed art on the wall before we could all open our menus, he was a perfectionist.  I look at my works the same way, everything has to be done to by strict specifications, or ill be annoyed....and I can't sleep if I'm annoyed.  I hope you enjoy the artwork and my hope is that these previous thoughts I typed into words better define why I do what I do. Thanks.  

-Jay Nauman