First Thursday 
Yesterday night was "First Thursday" here in Seattle, indicating the day of the month when galleries beckon to the unwashed public with plates of stale crackers and bottles of cheap wine. Gallery prowling wasn't really on my agenda when I met my friend Min for a beer over at Linda's Tavern, but somehow one thing led to another and before long we were sucking down Carling's Black Labels at the downtown loft space of collagist and sculptor Jesse Paul Miller. Miller had opened his second-floor studio - a working artist's space in the true sense of the word - to the public for First Thursday, but the viewing was now over and only a handful of friends were left hanging out.
The impromptu gathering gave me a closer look at Miller's work, which I'd seen hanging in various spaces around town but never paid special attention to. He works in mixed media, assembling objects and collages from newspapers, old postcards, ticket stubs and all the various ephemera of modern life. Sometimes he will take an object like an old record player and ornament every square inch of the surface with abstract designs in ballpoint pen. He deliberately cultivates a throwaway quality in both his choice of materials and in the often-casual presentation of the work. Min bought a death-mask made of doodled-on newspaper and packing tape and Jesse remarked how he loved the "ridiculous fragility" of the piece as he carefully packed it in styrofoam chips.
Miller, who is also an experimental musician, had been an early collaborator with the singer/guitarist of the band Min currently plays in, the A-Frames. Min had the final mix of the new A-Frames CD which the band had just finished over the weekend, so we put that on at high volume for a first listen. More about that when I get my own copy, but fans of abrasive indie-punk will rejoice when this hits the streets in the spring.
9:22:03 AM 
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