Meet Jim Bliesner | Artist

We had the good fortune of connecting with Jim Bliesner and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Jim, can you talk to us a bit about the social impact of your business?
One of the primary activites of my career as an artist has been to select outdoor installation sites that illustrate a serious socio/economic problem. Either by myself or with a collective we will interact with the community in which the issue is relevant and through this dialogue develop the art installation that will address or illustrate or highlight the problem. The art brings attention to the issue and it serves to mobilize the residents around a focal point. Attention is brought to the problem and local officials, media, state and federal officials are engaged as well. After the art apex, an ongoing effort to address the problem generally emerges. This effort has addressed economic development opportunites, environmental issues, community improvements (infrastructure) with numerous concrete solutions emerging. One of my projects is featured in Art and Social Change:A Critical Reader- Will Bradley and Charles Esche.

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
The art world puts creatives into categories,but the essential nature of being creative is that “there are no boundaries”. You can do anything you can do…and some things you cannot. We can always learn more if our ideas require new knowedge or skills. In fact, being creative requires perpetual learning, solving problems as they arise during the doing.
I started painting plein aire and painted as my children grew, after work. I learned there is a link between how one builds or constructs a painting and how one builds or constructs other things in the world…like communites or organizations. I guess its called an algorithm. My degrees in Philosophy helped me to understand and reflect/digest/expand on what I am doing whether its applyng paint to a canvas or developing strategies for a career or raising a family. Being creative provides the elan vital (life force).I still paint every day and continue to learn. I take from that inspiration and methods to apply to the real world knowing that it all changes .

I am most proud of my two children who weathered the tumult, appreciated the art and worked their own way into exciting careers, one in finance and the other as an artist and continue to share with me four wonderful garndchildren who inspire me every day with their brilliant imaginations. I am also proud of developing my art and professional career to the level that I was invited to be a “Visiting Scholar” and adjunct professor at the University of California-San Diego and the graduate program at Woodbury Architectural School based on my ideas and innovation; Urban Economics and Design. I have a chest ful of commendations and awards for both art and for community economic development as further evidence that something useful has been happening. I have greatly enjoyed the opportunity to paint in some of the great cities of the world (Paris, Venice, Jerusalem, Rio, London, China etc). I have also enjoyed publishing three books about my artistic and poetry journey, Clouds of Summer-2011, Crowds of Summer -2012 and China Odyssey -A Painters Journal. A memoir “James Did It” is in the works.
What sets me apart? My committment to living in pursuit of ethical ideals with the responsibility to find practical ways to live/work while pursuing those. I guess also, my brain is calibrated to looking for solutions, finding whats around the next corner, anticipating the next question. With my art that has meant freedom to experiment with subects, methods, materials and ideas. With my work it has meant imagining and creating a system for community economic development that is unique and long lasting.
How did I get to here? A LOT of hard work,experimentation, learning while doing, figuring out how to move forward after my own mistakes or others animosity.
Lessons learned? If you can think of it you can do it! Think and plan long term. Know wherre you want to get to. Keep ones focus on the ultimate goal, the big picture. Imagine numerous solutions to any given problem and try as many as you need to move forward. The answer is no unless you ask.
What do I want the world to know? Love your neighbor as yourself.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
It would depend on the time of the year and where they were coming from. Of course its San Diego and so the beaches. A tour would be in order, maybe working our way up the coast from Imperial Beach to Solana Beach. Each has some unique restaurants nearby…
a tour of the Hotel Del with music and muchices in a beach chair, seafood at Jakes in Del Mar…. That might take two days. Then a trip to my cabin on Mount Laguna, drive thru Hidden Valley and Julian for apple pie,some hiking and French food at Pinehouse Cafe. Probably spend the night at 6000 feet to see the stars close up. Instead of driving back to the city maybe give Viejas some money and then cross the border at Tecate for tacos in the small town square, check out the Kumeyaay Museum and then head down into Valle de Guadalupe for a wine tour and food. Maybe stay over or drive south of Ensenada to La Bufadora and back up to a hacienda hotel on the beach south of Rosarito. Then a Ceasar salad in TJ before giving them the three hour tour of the waiting line at the border. Final day into Balboa Park for art and food and jazz.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
The loudest shout out is to my children. They have lived with my efforts to create, often under the most hostile of environments. The second is the long list of artists who have worked alongside me pursuing some of the most abstract ideas and methodologies and who are too numerous to list. The creative electricity of artistic collaboration depends on the open minds and visions of creative people. And, of course, there are the hundreds of commuity folks who have also engaged the efforts and continued the developmental ideas.
One of the most electrifying concepts about art that came from a book was “Thought is Form; The Drawings of Joseph Beuys”. Although I am not particualrly engrossed in his style or work… the idea that “thought is form” opens tremendous potential in deciding and conceptualizing what art is. In some ways it says, “if you can think of it you can do it”. The main focus of the art is the idea. And, if the idea is focused on changing something or putting a spotlight on a problem or a solution to a problem, when the art is done, the idea continues to resonate and produce long lasting results.That means more people become enagged and I want to give a shout out to them.
Finally I want to acknowledge, Dr Steve Erie, Dr Olga Vasquez and Rene Peralta for allowing me to explore and present my ideas in the class room at the University of California-San Diego and Woodbury Architectural School as adjunct professor. This post career environment and the refreshng dialogue wth young minds has been extraordinarily exhilarating and motivational for future work.

Website: https://jimbliesner.wordpress.com

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Other: Amazon Books for my two art books, Clouds of Summer-2011 and Crowds of Summer-2012