Jack Spiegelman ~ Artist and Author

Portraits by Jack Spiegelman

Landscapes by Jack Spiegelman

More From Jack Spiegelman

I live in Los Angeles. I have a morning routine that begins with breakfast at the Farmers Market and here I read the paper--the Times. That's the routine. The paper doesn't take long. I no longer concern myself with world or national affairs--or the business page either because all my stocks are in the toilet.

That leaves sports and the entertainment page. I saw my last movie 7 years ago. The movie was "Heat" with deNiro and Al Pacino. I sat watching the film and one scene followed another and one character spoke to another and one exploding car followed another exploding car and there was something about it all that left me in a state of zero suspense. I had seen this movie before. I had seen it 50 times. I left the theater and said to myself: no more movies--for $7.50. I declared a moratorium. Now it's seven years later, the tickets are $10.50 and the moratorium remains in place.

Thank god for sports--and stories about people like Julio Ortiz, pitcher for the Cubs, who went 8-11 last year with an ERA of 5.34 and has rejected the clubs latest offer, a 3 year contract for 1.9 mil per. Ortiz wants a 5 year contract for 3.2 mil per.
He has filed for arbitration.

I finish the paper and that is the cue for an old woman who sits nearby to shuffle over and ask to borrow the Metro section. She says: "I like to read the obituaries." She says this every day and every day I say, shoving the paper over: "take the whole thing." It's part of the routine.

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Jack Spiegelman curses at the wind as it blows another one of his paintings face down onto the ground. He is standing behind a table that is covered with his artwork, squinting into the wind as curious customers browse his stuff at the Montrose Farmer's Market. His eyes are dark and his brow is furrowed. There's a constant look of judgment on his face.
He says, "This f***ing wind!"

Spiegelman graduated from the University of California at Berkeley with a degree in English. He says, "I'm a writer that paints." He has been painting for 15 years on and off, and says that he has only really gotten busy with it the past four or five years. Spiegelman grew up in Buffalo, New York and now lives in Southern California where he writes, paints, and teaches ESL classes part-time for three hours a day. He has been a cab driver in San Francisco, worked in the advertising business,
and been in construction.

Spiegelman eyes a man with a camera around his neck who is flipping through his smaller prints that are in a box on the table. The man finally notices Spiegelman looking at him and asks, "These by you?" Which he answers with a short, "Yeah."
Either he's not trying to sell his work, or he thinks this guy isn't worth the effort. Either way, the cameraman takes off muttering, "They're nice" to himself.

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