BIO

In the late 1960s studying architecture at UC Berkeley he worked at the Ghirardelli Square bookstore where popular imagery posters like the Haight-Ashbury street sign and the Jefferson Airplane sold for a dollar. He liked the idea of inexpensive prints that anyone could buy, and he started making artwork with that in mind.

Jeff worked from the figure in the early 1960s taking several life classes from Ralph Borge and Richard Gayton at the California College of Arts and Crafts in Oakland, CA. The decision to focus on the figure became more definite around 1970 influenced primarily by two artists, Mel Ramos and Robert Bechtle. The fact that Mel Ramos used the nude in his work gave Jeff permission to do so, and when he first saw Robert Bechtle’s painting "60 T-bird" at the Berkeley Art Museum, having grown up with a bossy older brother endlessly enamored with cars, Jeff was incensed by what was basically another love letter to a car. But, at the same time, he also realized he could use photographs as a source of a high level of detail, heretofore impractical during life drawing time limit constraints. His reaction to Bechtle's painting along with several other incidents, provided him a path to pursue art.

Over the years Jeff has studied with, or been influenced by a number of Bay Area artists including James Prestini, Harold Paris, William Garnett, Imogen Cunningham, Mel Ramos, Raymond Saunders, Kenjilo Nanao, Frank Lobdell, Jack Mendenhall, Hugh Wiley, Mary Snowden, Jason Schoener, Arthur Okamura, Robert Bechtle, Jack Welpott, Cheri Raciti, Richard McLean, Seymour Locke, Robert Hudson, Barbara Rogers, John Roloff, Sam Tchakalian, Eleanor Dickinson, Ann Carter, Nance O'Banion, Chris Johnson, Linda Fleming, Larry Sultan, Mike Henderson, Michele Pred, and Dorothea Lange.

Jeff's artwork is in the collections of the Stedelijk Art Museum, Amsterdam, Nertherlands; Crocker Art Museum, Sacramento, CA; the Oakland Museum of California, Oakland, CA; Center for the Study of Political Graphics, Culver City, CA; Joseph A. Labadie Collection, University of Michigan, and private collections.


I’m Not a Man

by Harold Norse, haroldnorse.com/
July 6, 1916 – June 8, 2009


I’m not a man, I can’t earn a living, buy new things for my family. I have acne and a small peter.

I’m not a man. I don’t like football, boxing and cars.
I like to express my feeling. I even like to put an arm
around my friend’s shoulder.

I’m not a man. I won’t play the role assigned to me- the role created by Madison Avenue, Playboy, Hollywood and Oliver Cromwell. Television does not dictate my behavior.

I’m not a man. Once when I shot a squirrel I swore that I would never kill again. I gave up meat. The sight of blood makes me sick. I like flowers.

I’m not a man. I went to prison resisting the draft. I do not fight when real men beat me up and call me queer. I dislike violence.

I’m not a man. I have never raped a woman. I don’t hate blacks. I do not get emotional when the flag is waved. I do not think I should love America or leave it. I think I should laugh at it.

I’m not a man. I have never had the clap.

I’m not a man. Playboy is not my favorite magazine.

I’m not a man. I cry when I’m unhappy.

I’m not a man. I do not feel superior to women.

I’m not a man. I don’t wear a jockstrap.

I’m not a man. I write poetry.

I’m not a man. I meditate on peace and love.

I’m not a man. I don’t want to destroy you.


San Francisco, 1972