Jeff Hamada Guest Curated 20x200 Set by Various Artists

After long admiring his taste in art from afar, we asked Jeff Hamada from Booooooom to dive into the 20x200 archives and see what he could find. After he plucked the above gems from the mine, Ms. Jen Bee pinged Jeff on instant messenger to see what he's all about. The following conversation is what transpired between the two curatorial geniuses. Enjoy!

Jeff:
hey Jen!
Jen:
Hiiiiii, we meet at last!
Thanks for making time for me on IM.
Jeff:
No problem!
Jen:
So, first I had a couple questions about you + Booooooom: What is your background? I confess that I don't know much about you. And also: when did you start the blog + why? How'd you come up with the name?
Jeff:
I am 26, I live in Vancouver, I am third-generation Japanese, meaning my parents were also born in Canada. I guess I am a designer. I used to work for Electronic Arts as a concept artist, then I went back and graduated from film school—kinda all over the place.
I think a lot of people sort of hone in on one thing or a few things they like as time goes on, sort of like focusing a lens, but for me, I just get more interested in more and more things. By the time I finished film school, I wanted to make t-shirts instead. And now I don't anymore!
I started Booooooom a year ago, just as a personal blog for me and my friends to read. [The name] was kinda arbitrary, the amount of "o"s I mean—it just fit nicely into that box shape. I wanted to make a name that stood out in a list of blogs to make people wonder if it really was for real.
I had no intention of becoming a "blogger."
Jen:
And it's totally taken off!
I think they all inform each other... like the fact that you went to film school means that the type of t-shirts you wanted to make were a certain way and the experience with those two things makes your blog what it is, etc...
I am an all-over-the-place person myself.
I think it's the best way to be.
I love doing 20x200 because it combines my internet nerdery with my art experience with my writing stuff—I get to do all my favorite things all the time!
Though the newsletter-ing is HARDCORE.
Jeff:
Internet nerdery! yes
Jen:
Anyhow, I guess we should talk about the artz!
Everyone at JBP HQ was excited about your selections. Having someone who curates curate a set of stuff from what we've released is something we're really excited about—it gives us a fresh perspective.
How'd you winnow it down to the choices that you made?
Jeff:
I'm not sure exactly, they had to catch my eye, which really isn't revealing anything about my process but that's what it comes down to. I have been told that there is usually a certain style to the things I post on my site and I have been trying to figure out a way to describe the things I like in a general sense. I really do like work that is hand-made or has that imperfect quality to it. I don't post a lot of slick, perfect, computer generated stuff, it's just cold, I think.
Jen:
Hah well, I can totally identify with that.
Jeff:
So, maybe there is a warmth to the majority of the work I pick.
I do like dark work as well though.
Jen:
The gallery's motto is, "Live with art - it's good for you." But my personal motto is a quote from a Frank O'Hara poem, "You just go on your nerve."
Jeff:
Yeah, totally.
Jen:
I'm all about gut instinct... I find it hard to explain why I pick what I do.
There is a certain in-commonness about the line quality of the images you picked from our archives though. And it's not something I'd have picked up on myself, like putting the two Jacobs [Escobedo + Magraw] together, when you see them, they make total sense.
Jeff:
Yeah. I guess these pieces have really skinny line-detail stuff, even the Amy Ross work. But, the Ky Anderson work is kinda the other side of it, really free and expressive.
Jen:
I love her stuff. I feel like she is an unsung hero of 20x200!
Plus she is a lovely human being.
Jeff:
Yeah, her work is amazing.
Jen:
Also Whitmarsh and Ky side-by-side! Brilliant. Really nice combination.
Jeff:
Yeah, two mountains that couldn't be more different.
Jen:
And again, not something I would've thought of. Megan's work is really incredible too.
And in my head, you and Jacob Escobedo could be total buds.
Jeff:
Haha, what makes you say that?
Jen:
I'm not sure. He's a designer too and it makes sense to me that you'd dig his work based on what you curate for Booooooom.
Jeff:
I wish I could draw like he can... He obviously thinks in a way that I never could. I come more from the Mike Perry school of drawing, not that Mike Perry can't draw, I just couldn't make a drawing like Mr. Escobedo. It's like the math style of the drawing world.
Jen:
HAH! Yes. Jacob's stuff is super-precise.
And what about Amy Ross? What drew you to her work?
Jeff:
Amy Ross' work is just so ridiculous. I love it. I think the first work I saw of hers was some mushroom people dancing or something.
Jen:
Her Manshroom edition was the very first print we sold on 20x200. And yes, there is a ridiculousness to Amy's stuff that is just delightful.
Jeff:
I had a really hard time in art school during critiques when people would use a lot of "artspeak" to describe a work and when I would ask a question, I would feel like they were saying, "Haha, you don't get it? You are stupid if you don't get this work, and we won't tell you what it means."
So, I really identify with work that has humor in it because right away, it's like a doorway into the art. I can feel like I "get it."
I tried to make my site with people who didn't go to art school in mind.
Jen:
That "I don't get it" feeling, it's the worst. It's what keeps so many people from connecting with art. That's why I write the newsletters, because I really want people to understand that to think about art at all is to get it. And that thinking about art is really awesome — to use the technical term.
Haha.
We have the best jobs!
Jeff:
Totally agree! If I can make this my full-time job, (soon, hopefully) I will be living the dream. Sharing art for a living!
Jen:
It's a good goal.
So what are you excited about in your world right now; what's next for you + Booooooom?
Jeff:
I'm going to put more time into the Projects section of the site. I want to focus on the community part—really get people doing stuff, making art and snapping photos. I like seeing people commenting and interacting with each other. It doesn't happen on a lot of blogs!
Jen:
Yeah, I've noticed that you have a lively community, which is something I want to get happening more on 20x200.
Jeff:
It's exciting.
Jen:
What other things do you think lead to the site becoming so successful? And by successful, I mean: you've made a name for yourself! I am sure you don't feel like the mackdaddy of the internet or something but hopefully you're proud to have built such an enthusiastic art community so quickly.
Jeff:
I think it's been a bunch of things, I really like street art but Fecal[face] and Wooster [Collective] already have that locked down; so I do post a little bit but there isn't any point in starting another street art site, ya know. So, I have been trying to differentiate the content on my site from other art blogs. I would often just go around on Flickr and hop from person to person, bookmarking along the way. I decided to try to focus my site on those people a bit more. I also focus on "crafts" when I think some other sites brush them off. I think there is a stigma that "crafts" aren't art.
Jen:
That's a whole other LONGASS conversation, an interesting one, but whoa.
Jeff:
I think that has played a huge role in it. If you are knitting cool little wool animals, you have just as much chance (maybe more) to be posted, as someone making large oil paintings and showing in galleries. Actually, if you have an agent, your chances of being posted might be worse than the knitter.
Jen:
Do you just get scads of people sending you work now?
Do you have people sweating you now to post artists they rep?
If you can think of one, tell me a success story via your site that you're particularly proud of.
Jeff:
I probably get 200 or so emails/week from artists and yeah, lots [from reps].
I've received several emails from artists thanking me because an ad agency had seen their work on the site and they had since been commissioned to do something, which is really awesome!
One of my favorite experiences so far though was regarding this one artist, Karen Caldicott. Seven years ago or so, I had bought this issue of a Canadian magazine called Shift, that featured these amazing clay busts of the whole Simpsons family and I immediately ripped out the pages and put them on my wall (they are still on my wall). I eventually lost the magazine and all I had were these magazine pages.
I decided I wanted to track down the artist and I was going to take them down off my wall and scan them and before I did, I got a random email out of the blue from Karen asking me to take a look at her work and the first images I saw were her clay Simpsons pieces! So I took a photo of my wall and sent it back to her and we both kinda freaked out.
The site has been awesome for that kinda stuff, even just emailing back and forth with all these artists that I had no connection to before, like on a personal level now. It's rad.
It's great to connect with all these people excited about the same things.
Jen:
Hah! That is a great story. I love that about 20x200 too.
So my last question is this: Who are a few of the artists you've featured on the blog that you'd love to see making 20x200 editions?
Jeff:
Ohhh good one, let me think.
Agustin Sirai!, Leopold Rabus, oh Zhou Fan!
Jen:
Those are good. I really like the range of those picks. Also, I posted about Scott, the astronaut dude, on my blog, with a hat-tip to Booooooom, of course.
Thanks for making time—to talk with me and to select work to begin with!