#jamie steele

[nothing-fancy94]

Soooo... You guys liked it, and asked for more, and so here I am with part 2 of my little Shadamy short, where our fav hogs have an unknown, shared past, which left one bitter and the other... well we haven’t found that out quite yet.

As always thanks to my support team, @mysuperlaserpiss @another-sonic-blog and @lonelysadblob my cove of palm trees that always inspire me.

I look forward to hearing what you all think of this next part :)

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Lost Time - Part 2

Shadow smashed the door to the G.U.N. offices open with such a fury that a chill spread through the entire floor. He passed by the many cubicles lining the middle of the floor, ignoring the array of frightened and annoyed gazes. Being on the job for so long, and never failing at a mission had given him a corner office in the back, which he appreciated for its seclusion and privacy. So, on a day like today, he could simply lock himself inside with the blinds shut, and no one dared to bother him.

Just as he had finished shutting the last of his shades, he heard the click of his supposedly locked door as it opened. If possible, his mood darkened even more, for he knew only one person could pick his lock as though he'd left the key in the knob.

"Hey, hon! How's my favorite hedgie doing this morning?" Rouge the Bat announced as she sauntered into his office as though she owned it.

Shadow brought his hands to his forehead and made his way to his desk which sat in the far side and next to the large windows which looked out over the city. Once seated in his chair, he finally brought his attention back to bat who was wandering about his office and touching all of his books and decorations. 

"What is it that you want, bat?" He asked, frustration dripping in his voice. He didn't want to deal with the other crazy female in his life, not after the shit he had gone through this morning.

Rouge sighed and dropped the generic bust of a head that had come with the office, back onto it's shelf. She made her way to the other side of his desk and plopped down into a chair. She sucked the right side of her lip, and looked at him with an almost nervous gaze. However, Rouge was rarely nervous, hesitant maybe, but her personality never let her dwell long on anything.

"Well..." She started, and sat back in her chair folding her arms, "I'm throwing a party tomorrow tonight... in celebration of an old friend returning home, and I thought you might want to come."

Shadow scoffed. It was almost hilarious, this situation. He'd never seen Rouge beat around the bush before, but he supposed that was to be expected when it came to the bombshell that was Amy Rose. He grunted and folded his arms as he looked her over,

"And what made you think that I would have even the slightest interest in going to one of your ridiculous parties. Besides it's most likely for someone I don't even know." 

He almost laughed out loud at the guilt that appeared on her face. He had never known his oldest partner to feel guilty about anything, and she was the one who had stolen the Master Emerald before and almost caused the collapse of the human world with Dr. Eggman. This was certainly interesting. Amy sure had a way of bringing out sides of people that were never before seen. And not their good sides either.

Shadow rose from his chair and made his way around the desk. "Look, I was going to let you fumble around some more, since it's quite amusing to see you behave like this, but I have work to do. As I'm sure you do as well. Besides," He paused, as he leaned in close to her twitching face, "I know she's back in town. I saw her this morning."

Rouge could not hide the shock that ran through her body and laid to rest on her face. Shadow smirked and walked to the door of his office.

"Wha... What happened?" She asked as he opened the door and gestured for her to leave. He rolled his eyes, and crossed his arms.

"What do you think? She invited me to her inane party. Of course I'm not going. Nothing will make me go, not you and definitely not her."

Rouge sat for a minute, a look of pity on her face, before she got up to leave. He almost felt bad for the way he treated her, after all it wasn't her fault that Amy was a total witch. But as she was leaving, she paused, gave him a look, and said, "People deserve a second chance. Amy may not be perfect, but who is? Just come and hear her out... You'll regret it if you don't." 

Without waiting for a response, she left.

................................................................................................................................

As usual, nothing of any importance or excitement happened to Shadow at work. And throughout the day he had done his best to avoid Rouge, which had been difficult since she was his partner, and was a stubborn bitch if he ever knew one. However, he’d been able to leave early after finishing all his paperwork, with the excuse of his broken bike. He headed to his favorite auto shop, all the while riding with extreme care so as not to lose more of his bike then he already had. Once he arrived he was greeted by one of the few Mobians he could tolerate, Jamie Steele, an orange hedgehog mechanic.

"Heya Shado–OH shit! What happened to Ruby?!" Jamie rushed over to the shambles of a bike that Shadow dragged behind him. Shadow rolled his eyes at the hedgehog's frantic examination of his prized possession. "Didn't I tell you not to call it that?"

Jamie stopped and stood up, his blue eyes playful, "You and I both know you like the name." Ignoring Shadow's glare, the orange hedgehog grabbed the bike, and pulled it into his private section of the garage. 

As they walked towards the back room, Shadow glanced around at all the high end vehicles and imported machines. He was still amazed at what Jamie had managed to do in just the few years that he’d owned the shop. It used to be the worst in town, but now there was a waiting list for months, just to have Jamie take a glance at a machine. However, having a rare handmade motorcycle, made Shadow’s ‘Ruby’ Jamie’s favorite client. He never had to wait for an appointment.

"So, my friend, you gonna tell me what happened to my favorite girl?" The orange hedgehog’s voice came through the door, snapping Shadow’s attention from the main garage. Shadow made his way in after Jamie, and couldn't help but let loose a frustrated growl. 

"Some shit from the past resurfaced in the most inconvenient way possible."

"Oh?" Jamie inquired, as he locked the wheels of the bike into place on a stand and took a closer look at the machine. "And this 'past,' she have a name?"

Shadow looked at him with such a bewildered expression, that it caused the orange hedgehog to laugh. Shadow’s eyes narrowed when he heard the laughter, and he scoffed,

"How'd you know I was talking about a person, let alone a female?" 

Jamie shook his head and stood up with a grin, "Not much can make a prideful male like yourself unnerved. I figure it has to be one of two things, a girl or a visit from Chaos himself. And I highly doubt the later is making trips to see a grumpy guy like yourself."

He made his way to the back of the garage, enjoying the sour look of confirmation on Shadow's face and turned off the lights. "Come on, let's go get some drinks. I don't have any more appointments today, and your bike will need new, imported parts, that won't get here for at least a couple days. Besides, you look like you need some hard liquor."

......

Previous / Next

[nothing-fancy94]

For those who like Jamie Steele here is an ask from @lonelysadblob If y'all wanna see more shoot me an ask!! I've been in the drawing mood lately.

I also have some questions and answers i may post as well.

[cumbriacrack]

Concern for missing Carlisle men Police are appealing for information the whereabouts of two missing Carlisle men. Billy Blacklock, 22, and Jamie Steele, 25, were last seen at a property on Charles Street at 6.30pm on 22nd January. Full story: https://www.cumbriacrack.com/2018/01/24/concern-missing-carlisle-men/

[laurenkreid]

Corkey Sinks & Jamie Steele, ‘Cabinet Sessions’ 2014

[tsabrooklyn]

Jamie Steele

jamiesteele.com

Jamie Steele (b. 1985, Atlanta, GA) currently lives in Brooklyn, NY. Steele is co-Founder of GURL DONT BE DUMB, a Chicago-based collaborative and curatorial project. She obtained her BA in Fine Art from the University of the South in 2007 and a MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 2012 upon which she received the John Quincy Adams fellowship awarded by Jessica Stockholder. Via photo, video, and sculptural works Steele makes use of neon colors, drag aesthetics, and various feminine accoutrements that are often transformed to the grotesque. Specific actions, sounds, and colors, create a sense of feeling alien in ones own skin. Steele plays with the edges of taste, questions what is proper, and pushes against the symbology of elegance cauterized in her mind by a conservative southern upbringing.

Banana Tree   Photograph   11 x 14 inches   2015   $550

Pink Gardens Photograph 16 x 20 inches 2015 $550

[thepitchproject]

LIT UP press release

LIT UP an installation by Gurl Don’t Be Dumb Opens at The Pitch Project October 17, 2014, from 5 - 9 pm  

The Pitch Project (706 S. 5th St., Milwaukee, WI 53204, USA), invites

viewers to get LIT UP by Chicago-based duo GURL DON’T BE DUMB (Eileen Mueller and Jamie Steele) in an exhibition filled to the brim with candid irreverence and satirical performative interactions. This is your styrofoam cooler emitting a soft pink glow, this is your moonlight skinny-dip LIT UP. The exhibition was first shown at Forever & Always Projects in Chicago IL at a one night event.  According to Forever & Always Projects,  “GDBD is not an overarching synthesis of feminism, anti-feminism, anti-gender, nor gender identity politics. GDBD is Jamie and Eileen making contact with playful material, creating relationships of mischievous viewership and interaction, and inviting everyone along for the ride – shotgun.”

In the summer of 2013 GURL DON'T BE DUMB made the trek to the ACRE, a residency in Steuben, Wisconsin. As residents they held a series of studio visits and curated an exhibition on site. GDBD mounted the one night exhibition sticklip: KOUNTY S in their camp loft lit entirely by flashlights. However something more monumental happened for the two. One late, foggy night the duo crept over to the sound studio under which lived two river kittens rescued from the spring flood. Lo! Next to the studio, shrouded in the mists of a driftless Wisconsin midnight was a single streetlight in an overgrown field glowing above a bush. The image was clear, the camera was set, and the two cracked open cans of beer while the shutter was left open exposing the lighted bush. The kittens, who had remained hidden, suddenly appeared beneath the feet of the tripod and frolicked for the GURLS while the latent image set. A metaphysical shift had occurred, the moment was magical, and suddenly the two had a clear body of work ahead of them and only ten days of camp left.

  The photographs, video, and sculptural pieces  in LIT UP are that resulting body. Made up of lampooned modern gestures, sincere performative drinking, and the notion of camp life as both material and content, this work is the clear picture of two GURLS making serious work of hard play.

LIT UP will run October 17, 2014 to ­January 17, 2015. The artists will be in attendance for the opening, camping out in the gallery the night before.  The artists will return for the closing weekend of the show for an artist talk on Friday, January 16.  Media contact, images available [email protected]

About the Artists

GURL DON’T BE DUMB was founded by Eileen Mueller and Jamie Steele in 2011 as a curatorial project. Trafficking in artists that reclaim the rejected with irreverence and total genius their aim was to build playful exhibitions in an effort to free the works from the academy and facilitate empowered viewership. They have mounted shows at MDW Fair, Iceberg Projects, Vessel & Page, and Heaven Gallery. After completing a residency at ACRE the two have turned their attention to making collaborative works, taking their curatorial research and applying it to works that further explore the materiality of GURLNESS.

gurldontbedumb.com

Eileen Mueller (b. 1985, Milwaukee, WI) studied at the Maryland Institute College of Art and later received her BFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. She is the recipient of the Fred Endsley Memorial Fellowship and the World Less Travelled Grant. Recent residencies include ACRE and a teaching assistantship at Ox-Bow. Her work focuses on the material history of the photograph and its role in confounding unwritten or inaccessible histories. Mueller highlights the fictive nature of archival materials by mapping new connections to existing histories so that they become interwoven with her own life and journeys. The work forms a new lineage wherein kinship is not proximal or biological but rather rooted in community and practice. Her work has shown at Andrew Rafacz Gallery, Iceberg Projects, Roots & Culture, and Johalla Projects. This summer her work was featured in exhibitions at the OSU Urban Arts Space and the Museum of Contemporary Photography. Based in Chicago, Eileen is a co-founder of LATITUDE and teaches at ChiArts.

eileenmueller.com

Jamie Steele (b. 1985, Atlanta, GA) currently lives in Brooklyn, NY.   She obtained her BA in Fine Art from the University of the South in 2003 and a MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 2012. She received the John Quincy Adams fellowship awarded by Jessica Stockholder. Via photo, video, and sculptural works Steele makes use of neon colors, drag aesthetics, and various feminine accoutrements that are often transformed to the grotesque.  Specific actions, sounds, and colors, create a sense of feeling alien in ones own skin, relating to sexuality, sex, and femininity.  Steele plays with the edges of taste, questions what is proper, and pushes against the symbology of elegance cauterized in her mind by a conservative southern upbringing.  Recent exhibitions include: Static Cling, Penelope, Brooklyn, NY (2014), BLACK CAULIFLOWER, Roots & Culture, Chicago, IL, (2014), Gone to Seed, Schneider Gallery, Chicago, IL (2013), Archetype Drift, Johalla, Chicago, IL (2013), and The Great Refusal, Sullivan Galleries, Chicago, IL (2012).

ACRE (Artists’ Cooperative Residency and Exhibition) was founded in 2010 with the ambition to provide the arts community with an affordable, cooperative, and dialogue-oriented residency program. The residency itself takes place each summer in rural southwest Wisconsin and brings together artists from across disciplines and levels of experience to create a regenerative community of cultural producers. Over the course of the following year ACRE endeavors to further support its residents by providing venues for exhibitions, idea exchange, interdisciplinary collaboration, and experimental projects.

ABOUT THE PITCH PROJECT

The Pitch Project is a home for contemporary art practices in Milwaukee’s Historic Walker’s Point neighborhood. The Pitch Project is not only a gallery for bringing contemporary global practices and exhibitions to Milwaukee, but provides studios for 23 local artists who are active on a national and international level. The Pitch Project hosts diverse exhibitions, artist talks, screenings, and events. Founded by Mike Brenner, in conjunction with Brenner Brewing Company (in the adjacent building), the gallery and studios are run by its four co­directors: Brewer; Mike Brenner, and artists; Will Pergl, Sonja Thomsen, and Jason Yi.

[don-dean]

Jamie Steele

Jamie Steele received her MFA from the School of Art Institute of Chicago in 2012 and currently lives and works in Chicago.

    In a lot of your work, you seem to be trying to break through something. Is making artwork a way of battling repression? Is this a female condition?

While my work often starts as a need to release an excess of emotion—this could be frustration, anger, or sadness—I never think of making work as therapeutic or as a way of alleviating some psychological issue.  That’s what the shrink is there for.

Historically, repression as a female condition has been talked about In terms of sexuality and desire. PANTS OFF! mostly came from my own frustration with sex and even those skinny jeans that are always such a pain to get off. I sort of hate how the phrase “female condition” sounds. It reminds me of someone gossiping, you know, “She’s in a way, and no ring!”

Society presents us with a lot of rules on how to act or dress properly.  I was raised to be ladylike, polite, and sweet. For various occasions or parties my mom would always sit me down in her bathroom and brush my hair, blow dry it, and put it up in hot rollers. I hated it. Under every poofy dress I had on a pair of Umbros and was always looking for a way to get away from the grownups and play my Gameboy.  I think I finally just threw such a fit over my mom curling my hair that she decided it wasn’t worth it anymore.  I think I’m still channeling some of that childhood frustration into my work.

I think it’s really important to make work when you are frustrated or pissed.  I’m not a generally angry person and I don’t think there is an overt demonstration of anger in my work but I think the energy that is generated from being pissed can be really beneficial to an art.  There is a lot to be said for the “Fuck You” piece. Side Pone began as a “Fuck You” piece.  In grad school critiques, when I was showing photos or videos where I was the subject, I would get some grief for being blonde…. So obviously I made a three foot long neon yellow pony tail with scrunchies.  It took on a life of it’s own and while it still might have a little bit of “fuck you” in it, it is also playful and inviting.  While it was on exhibit during my MFA thesis exhibition I showed up at the opening and saw that a bunch of people had begun leaving their empty beer bottles underneath it.  I liked that.

  Where does your work intersect with social class?

Taste is incredibly relative and it’s something that I am constantly exploring in my work.  For example, I think the house I grew up in is very refined yet contemporary; however, some people might think the leopard patterned carpet going up the stairs is just too much. 

There is a lot of popular culture vs. high culture in my work and taste is something that I’m always exploring.  I’m drawn to neon, and glitter, and animal print, which is an aesthetic normally reserved for little girls or drag queens and not Southern debutantes.  I was raised in an upper class environment.  When I go visit my family and friends in Atlanta it’s a very different setting and experience from the one I live in Chicago. I feel a little out of place in both environments and I am stuck somewhere in the middle. I think it comes out in a photograph I made called Self Portrait, which is of a large painted portrait hanging over a very grand fireplace mantle of a little girl and her horsie.  I altered the image so that the little girl had a pink riding jacket on instead of the more traditional black one.  It’s titled Self Portrait because the painting in the photograph could be of myself.  I never had a horse growing up but I did ride horses and I’m pretty sure I had one of those little black riding jackets.  The pink jacket may not be considered as tasteful but it would be what I preferred and it also functions as a tool to pick and poke at high society.

  What do you hope a male audience can gain from your work?

Hmm I know that traditional overtly feminist works can be alienating in today’s contemporary art world but I don’t think my work is overtly feminist.  Some of it might be seen as ‘girlie’ due to the large amount of pink or simply because I’m a girl and I am often seen in my work.  I don’t have a problem getting behind some “dude art” and enjoying the explosive moments of testosterone and power.  I might be a little freaked out… but that’s can be a good thing. I think humor is also an important device to be used in work to include wider audiences.  I am thrilled when people can laugh and find a piece of mine funny.

I am not necessarily thinking about what men will think when I make work.  The phrase, “Oh this might make a male audience feel excluded so I better not do it” is not something I have ever said.  I know my work has made men in the room feel uncomfortable and honestly I kind of like that.  I want to make people a little uncomfortable.  That has so much to do with what my work is about, feeling awkward and uncomfortable.  I know it’s made women uncomfortable too. I was showing Pants Off!  to a crit panel and afterwards one woman in the group said “Oh man, when the video started I was thinking ‘OH GREAT, are we going to have to sit here and watch this POOR WOMAN masturbate’?” I don’t understand why all of a sudden I was being called a “poor woman”.  It was such an outrageous thing to say that it actually ended up being kind of funny.

  Is there an anxiety that comes with your gender, where does it connect with the themes of your work?

Sure, but not more so than with any other. Anyone can feel that they are unable to meet the conventional expectations of a gender. I think there is anxiety that can come from feeling confined to a certain set of rules. The majority of the society that I grew up around in the South expects me to be gentle, sensitive, and sexually passive. But what if I want to be a pervert clown, or a slutty wrestler?

There is a potential queerness in my work that has nothing to do with sexuality.  Taking parts of the preformed femininity I grew up around – the polished, fabulous, high level of grooming, style, and prowess and embodying and preforming that while at the same time presenting myself in opposition to that.  The two performances are housed in the same body and this works when I apply that to a grubby unkempt male body as well.  In my video Buff, a man uncomfortably squeaks his pink patent leather high heels together. The anxiety of the piece can be seen in two different ways—it’s either a result of the subject’s own nerves or an urge to push someone else’s buttons.  It’s about feeling uncomfortable in ones own skin.

  How do colors influence the experience of your work?

You may have noticed the large amount of hot pink in my work and my interest in the color lies in its ability to seduce and repulse a viewer at once.  I’ve read that hot pink is also the least liked of the pink shades, which made me even more interested in using it in my own work.  I’m attempting to really push the attraction and repulsion qualities of the color and showcase its unparalleled ability to provoke desire and disgust in the viewer more than any other color. It’s another way I incorporate my interest in taste and class into my work. Pink has taken on a multiplicity of associations and often exists in opposition of itself. Pink has come to signify a type of bad taste or aesthetics of low culture.  It’s seen as artificial and superficial yet pink also signifies a cheeky sexuality associated with certain genres of porn and strip clubs.  Yet it appears everywhere in popular culture.  Nicki Minaj, Katy Perry, Ke$ha are often seen wearing pink or incorporating it in album covers and videos.  I think they have similar interests as I do in that they enjoy taking feminine clichés and stereotypes and laughing at them while really taking on a new power in their subversion of these stereotypes.   

  In your durational videos you push your body and self to its ownlimitations, is there an honest moment met at the end? Are your photographs realizations from these moments?

I think I know what you mean but I don’t think I would call them ‘honest moments’.  In video, there is so much room for chance, unexpected accidents, and lucky breaks.  For example, I didn’t plan for the severe expression on my face during Me and the Lamp, or my leg to spasm in Cohorts, or the lamp to fall on the floor in Pants Off!.  I think of these moments more as ‘breaking points’ or possibly ‘revealing moments’.  My videos as teeter on the edge of security and total collapse.  In Cohorts there is an expectation that I will drop the plant and the vase will shatter but it never happens.  Instead the big climax is that my leg spasms.  I like the tension in that waiting period and the hypnotism of the bugs flying around and the lawn mower sound in the background. Maybe that’s where the honesty that you speak of lies. But my short answer is: No.  I never think about honesty when making work.  I care about honesty in people and in relationships but not in art.

Ask yourself a question and respond.

What are you working on now Jamie?

Well I’ll tell you what!  I’ve been shooting 4x5 portraits of my cat, Balls, using his litter box.

I am also always kept busy with my curatorial collaboration that I co-founded with Eileen Mueller, GURL DON’T BE DUMB.  We are participating in the MDW Fair this year and really excited about taking our style of exhibiting to a larger venue. We like to thematize our opening events in a way that encourages playful readership and we’re going bigger and crazier than ever before. Let’s just say that one photograph of my own that has been curated into the show is titled The Lion Tamer…

    www.jamiesteele.com

[sounddoe]

GDBD does MDW FAIR//