Life and Work with Jamie Lee Hoffer

Today we’d like to introduce you to Jamie Lee Hoffer.

Jamie Lee, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
I’ve been an artist my whole life, and I knew from an early age it was what I was. But although I went to the School of the Museum of Fine Arts Boston, painted and majored in printmaking, I never really felt like I belonged, but more like an imposter playing the part. Later, in my adult life, I may have printed and occasionally painted but it wasn’t until my father died, ten years ago, that I became the painter I am today. There’s a lot there – which I’m not going to touch. I just had no idea he had such a hold on me or my creative drive.

One of the classes I took at SMFA was called Techniques of the Old Masters where we learned, among other things, egg tempera and encaustic, which I pretty much forgot all about until one afternoon, 30 years later while visiting LACMA. I had known that some of my favorite artists of the Abstract Expressionist period had experimented and worked with wax, I just assumed it was paraffin or melted crayons. But there, staring at a Jasper Johns painting, I saw “encaustic” and it changed everything. I went crazy reading everything I could find on encaustic, watched way too many videos on YouTube, and started experimenting. I haven’t stopped.

Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
No. It has not been a smooth road. Much of it is because of me and the way I felt about myself. That go-to recording I heard over and over again – “you’re not good enough,” “who do you think you are?”, “There are so many people better than you”, “you’re a fake” – was deafening. I would walk into a gallery, feel small and insignificant, see the work of people who obviously felt highly of themselves and walk out with this common feeling of insecurity and shame. I knew I was of that world, but so, so, not in it. I had to be perfect, an impossible feat. It took a long time for that “recording” to become fainter and not carry as much weight as it had for all those years.

But my biggest struggle was the possibility that my creativity – my mojo – had been ripped away from me.

On May 30th, of 2017, I had a Dramatic Brain Injury (DBI) which landed me in the hospital for 8 days and in bed for 3 months. I couldn’t walk. I needed around the clock help for eating and going to the bathroom. I had a PT and a nurse see me once a week. I couldn’t handle light, noise or much social interaction. I was instructed by my neurologist not to watch TV, read, or do anything that could strain my brain. I was told to do nothing. Nothing. I was able to listen to classical music and some jazz like Pat Metheny . (who saved me during this time for sure). And I slept. A lot.

As I started to feel better and eventually went back to work, I realized I was avoiding the studio. I had no desire to create. It was gone. I had nothing. I would try, but there was nothing, I allowed myself to live with this for a while believing it would return. Months went by. And then I started feeling worse. I couldn’t hike or climb stairs without losing my breath. I felt old, and was afraid that I was just going to have to accept that the DBI took from me what little youth I had left. I had always been active, ate well, and took good care of myself. I became very depressed.

I tried doing everything I could to feel better: Chinese herbs and supplements, fasting, detoxing, plant based eating. Then almost a year to the day of my DBI came the chest pains. Terrible, bent over pain that stops you in your tracks, making it hard to breath. WTF? The cardiologist came into my hospital room the morning after a stent was put in saying that I had been a walking time bomb. I had a 95% blockage in my LDA, or left descending artery. What? Me? But I take such good care of myself! Coronary Artery Disease. My inheritance.

It had been a full year that I had avoided the studio. I was starting to feel so much better. And then I had a dream:

I was swimming in dark murky water where seaweed had been catching my legs. I saw ahead of me sparkles of light, so I followed it. The water started to change to a crystal clear blue with long green stems shooting down from the surface. I looked up as the sun sparkled down and raced to the surface. When I came up, I saw that I was in the middle of hundreds of beautiful white water lilies. Not only did I start painting again, but something changed, in me, AND my art. For now it’s water lilies. I wonder whats next?

Please tell us about your work.
The encaustic medium found me. It has all the elements that inspire me and push my boundaries. It leads me and I follow. I am in awe of it. It’s an extremely tactile medium, which I love, and I love the smell.

I relish the experience of the wax – painting, heating, scraping – exposing textures and color put down layers ago. I am an archaeologist excavating pieces that unmask me – giving way to vulnerability, presenting clues that vindicate.

The characteristics of the medium offer me the time to let air in between me and what I am doing, helping to breathe through the creative journey.

I make my own medium, each time using around 6 pounds of beeswax and a 1 to 7 ratio of damar crystals. It cooks overnight at 160°. I then strain it through many layers of cheesecloth to eliminate the bark and bugs that get caught in the sap of the crystals into a crock pot then fill 4 oz foil cups with the medium. I use a variety of things to add colors like pigment, oil paint, oil sticks or encaustic paint.

Although I believe there is a need and a place for politically and emotionally charged art, my pieces offer a reprieve, a moment to breathe, and a safe place to lose oneself within the layers. My hope is that one walks away after viewing my pieces feeling connected to something greater than themselves – a connection to all things, gratitude, happiness, contentment.

I challenge myself to connect with the goddess spirit, then transfer that connection out into the world with the purpose of helping heal the earth and its inhabitants. As an artist and communicator, I feel the urgency to share the love I have knowing that only through love will the healing take place.

Are there any apps, books, podcasts or other resources that you’ve benefited from using?
My life is a dichotomy. One part of me loves to be around social settings, talking and interacting with people, especially new people. I need to be outdoors in any capacity – be it a walk by the ocean or a hike in the mountains with my husband, being around animals, especially farm animals, or being in my beautiful back yard with family and friends. Then again, I love to be alone. My favorite thing is to be in my studio – working, playing, experimenting or cleaning. It is where I want to be. Or my back yard, along with my binoculars, watching the birds.

I love watching Ted Talks, and podcasts, especially ones about the human body and mind, the universe, physics, and all things metaphysical. And music – I have to be around music. I’m very eclectic. My go-to is Pat Metheny and Brazilian Jazz, but I like everything from Disclosure to Led Zeppelin, rap and R+B to folk and classical. It’s all about my mood.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.jamieleehoffer.com
• Phone: 3104884682
• Email: [email protected]
• Instagram: jamieleehoffer

Image Credit:
Andie Gechtman

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