Over the years I have had the great privilege of working with some very brilliant writers in doing artwork for their books. Writing is an artistic skill which I admire, envy and absolutely love as books are up among my favorite and most influential forms of inspiration. It is an art form for which I wish I could do, I have tried many times and, in many ways, and even as you can see with my blogs here and dyslexia has not been my best friend through this effort. Anyway, I have included in this section the Book art I have done thus far but am currently working on a few more commissions and hopefully will continue to be contacted by authors for commissions in the future! I am extremely honored to have done what I have here… Bon Appetite!
Album Art
Somehow… some way... I have seemingly, inadvertently found myself in the midst of a good pile of bodies of album art I have accomplished. I may dare say that for better or worse, it has become possibly the most successful platform for my art in terms of exposure and such due to the far-reaching tentacled influence on the outside world of peoples through music. Through this I have met many great people and have had a great many unbelievable experiences working with musicians and in general some of the coolest most intriguing human beings I have had the pleasure of working with.
It is worth mentioning that music was certainly one of my greatest inspirations during my early formative years as I would listen to music while painting pretty much as a sacrament unto my process. So here I am trying to archive as many of the albums my artwork is featured on as I can find but it is ongoing. To those interested in seeing this, I bid you enjoy!
Tarot
I could quite easily get carried far away on this subject for as long as it has held my interest over the years, but I will try to keep this as a simple overview regarding some words on Tarot and why you see all of this Tarot themed stuff I have up. If anyone has any further questions for me or would like to share any thoughts, please feel free to initiate an email conversation with me anytime.
OK. So, ultimately, in the context of art, I am deeply drawn to symbolism, symbol systems and symbolic art forms (especially of a folk, mythical & spiritual nature). It is one of my favorite types of art and probably even one of my oldest favorites as well. Just as far back as I can recall I have had a heavy draw towards this kind of thing. For many countless times I have spent way back in my childhood days just staring into the symbolic art of Tarot cards and drifting deeply into them, trying to unlock their secret and magical meanings. This act alone grew to become a good influence over my creative process and also the way that I perceive and interact internally with art, dreams and visions for that matter. The visual, subconscious and imaginal worlds and their haunting aftertaste attract me deeply as an artist. I just keep finding myself here at the crossroads time and time again for new ways to see further or deeper through the veil.
Over my creative process I have based many paintings as you may be able to tell and even a few entire series of paintings on Tarot divinations. I have worked as a Tarot Reader/Psychic, I have Studied, Practiced and journaled over many years of tarot use in many ways (methods, systems, techniques etc.), I have read many books, I have worked with other Cartomancers and Occultists, I have used the Tarot to teach me about the Tarot, I have even spent years in the B.O.T.A. going into the Western Mystery tradition school hoping to learn to see deeper or understand greater. I have during much of this time also explored making my own tarot cards and printing them and using them and recording my results. Also getting feedback from others who use them. As I go through this, I feel that I learn something new and perhaps that is why I keep doing this but evidently, I cannot seem to let this go and perhaps I just have more to learn. I have felt affectionate about ideas around The Royal Road and of the Fool’s Journey and so here is part of my own I suppose.
On a side note, I have to mention as I have received a lot of interest from people wanting to know if I have any copies available of these Tarot decks I have made, they are all sold out for now, I did look into a few printers I have worked with and notice how prices have dramatically risen so, although I will work on getting these printed again someday it’s just a bit out of the practical for the time being.
SKETCHES/DRAWING/INK
I have put some drawings up here which are taken from sketchpads and journals in case anyone finds this interesting. So, this is a place where I sometimes express or formulate these little idea sparks or inspirations when I'm feeling it. I always find these kinds of things interesting in artists that I follow so here you go.
Quintus Monier
I had been spending the day at my mom’s house during the summer of 2020 just working on some paintings. I was exploring a local piece of architecture as my subject matter, a building known as Saint Augustine’s Cathedral. One reason I was exploring this was because it felt important to me, almost iconic as a Tucson landmark. I had been making an effort to incorporate more local influence into my work. This buildings influence continued turning out almost automatically in various drawings and paintings I had been working on at the time. I had even used this in the background of "The Hierophant" card in what was a somewhat Sonoran influenced Tarot deck I was working on. I had also later read that there had been some strange hauntings, reports of apparitions and a faceless nun seen levitating in the courtyard here which had caught my curiosity.
So, that particular day I was trying to do a better painting of the building and my mom took a peek at what i was working on. She said, "Oh you know your great great grandfather built that building". I did not believe her, not because she would lie to me, but it was just too weird of a statement. So, I looked it up and there it was, Quintus Monier, my grandmother’s grandfather was indeed commissioned to move from France to America to work on a series of what has become some fairly iconic architectures. Also, I had found that in order to build this, as there was no brick company to use resources to build with, he established Tucson’s first brick company. As a Tucsonan i find this quite fascinating to learn about and have included one of the few bits of information on this which I could find in the link below.
Artemesia Galerie Representation.
Dear Viewer, I have given the website a fairly decent updating with some new paintings I have been producing as well as doing some cleaning up for the sake of easier navigation and will be keeping up with it. So the first order of business is to share news that I have been showing at Artemesia Galerie since April 23rd/2021. I have been excited to be featured along with an incredible group of highly talented and fascinating artists under some very beautiful themes. The space is located @ 836 Santa Fe Dr, Denver, Co, 80204, (720)421-4020. Visit the space in person if you can to see the excellent art featured or view and purchase art online if you are unable to @ https://www.artemesiagalerie.com/jesse-peper