About the Artist: Jeremy Singer

Colorado Plateau mesas oil on canvas 2019
Jeremy Singer

When I was advised that the special section of this volume would deal with representations of "empty" rural space, I thought right away of a series painted by Jeremy Singer. In this word the sky is the protagonist with only light clouds adding dimension. Less than half of the canvas is occupied by land, a land devoid of people or structures, dotted by shrubs and other plants—perhaps creosote and ocotillo. I thought of the series and imagined what it would be like to read Singer's landscapes juxtaposed with this volumes special section.

Singer is an accomplished visual artist who grew up in Flagstaff, Arizona, close to the Navajo Nation from which his family hails. Singer remembers coming of age around the art of his brother, father, uncle and maternal grandfather, who all had artistic inclinations ranging from "doodling" to portraiture. Singer remembers their artistic drive as oftentimes a way to escape everyday life on the reservation, which frames the representation of "empty rural space" in a specific way. In this volume we might ask if a rural landscape is being represented as a point of origin, an undisturbed, conserved pure zone, a refuge, or a hostile space devoid of opportunity or comfort. Singer is resistant when it comes to the constant pressure to present as a Diné¹ artist versus simply, "an artist," yet he granted me this; painting Arizona landscapes through a native lens produces something different from the all-too-common romanticization of Southwestern landscapes seen so often. Which raises the question; how does a representation of the rural space change depending on whether it is represented by a colonizer or colonized subject position?

Singer recounts his journey as an art student at Northern Arizona University and The University of Arizona, following African American and Latin American art. He credits Alfred Quiroz with teaching him the value of spontaneous drawing and "pushing your utensils to know you instead of succumbing to tedious and mechanical forms." To this day, Singer embraces lead pencils, eight dollar bin brushes, and oils. He enjoys working a Southwest pallet based in blues, browns, reds—the kinds of colors you would see at the Grand Canyon and the Colorado Plateau—but after living in Tucson for many years, he also integrates the oranges and reds we get from the Southern Arizona sunrises and sunsets. Singer draws inspiration from the region's summers as well; "I enjoy the monsoons and watching the clouds build from early morning throughout the day."