Featured Member: Jay Schleidt
NAME: Jay Schleidt
MEMBER SINCE: 2015
PROFESSION/VOCATION?: Associate Manager at Blick Art Materials
Q0. TELL US ABOUT YOURSELF: For the past quarter century, I have been collaborating with the universe to invent my own styles of art and music. I like making collages, not only with paper, but also using sound and video, which are major ingredients in my live performances. Acrylic mediums and paint also occupy a large portion of my output, from tiny to not-so. I’ve been recorded on over a hundred albums, most self-released on cassette tapes in handmade packaging, & a selection of these are in the permanent collections of Oxford and London Universities. My cats help me relax and gain inspiration. I have a brain that forces me to see every possible pun when there are none, and open a newspaper at random to a typo on first glance. Instead of hanging out with real living people, I’m often listening to Old Time Radio detective shows and etymology podcasts. Lation is this thing I believe in.
Q1. YOU x YOUR RELATIONSHIP TO PS1: If I could boil down my relationship with this esteemed institution to one word, it would be possibility. Through my intermittent dealings with PS1, I have been able to realize some of my dreams and follow tunnels I never would have slid down without it. Most of my decade-plus of PS1 time has involved me performing improvised sound art in front of a crowd, often with a touring act. I make the kind of music that sounds much better in a cool art gallery than a stinky bar. Through Public Space One I’ve been able to get real world experience showing and selling my art at sales, auctions, and exhibits. Additionally, working on projects like Benchmarks, and getting asked to create FilmScene’s Cinema Savant awards for Terry Gilliam, John Waters, and Charles Burnett, can be directly attributed to having a good relationship with PS1. I find myself recommending PS1 to my customers at the art store daily, for it seems like there is always someone curious to learn and experience what they have on offer. PS1 means much to many, it certainly does to me.
Q2. THE FIRST IMPRESSION: My first visit to PS1 was in 2007 or 08, shortly after I moved to Iowa City. Went to attend a friend’s ‘musical’ performance. Located in the basement of the Jefferson Building, I was greeted in the first room by a group exhibit featuring all manner of collaborative visual arts, which got me excited for the possibilities this organization offered. At the door to the performance room we were asked to give a donation, so I threw in a few bucks. A tall thin figure emerged and claimed he had made soup which we were to eat. This character was John Engelbrecht, and that night he realized potatoes need more than half an hour in a crock pot to become cooked, but we ate it and were happy.
Q3. THE BEST (AND WORST!?): The simultaneously best and worst experience at PS1 was when my band Mustard-In-Law did a surprise performance during the last 15 minutes of ICECREAM, and our friend Victor Cayro allowed himself to be smothered in ten pounds of mustard. I think it’s safe to say it made a memory that stuck in the nostrils of all attendees!
Q4. WHY THE LOVE!?!? A welcome space encouraging freedom of expression and identity aligns perfectly with my ideal community arts center. Since I wasn’t always able to go to all the events, I used to give a twenty at the door when I could show up. After I moved across town and found I had even less time to attend, I became a monthly donor. I want PS1 to survive and do what it does, regardless of whether I can be there to witness. The level of importance this place/idea holds in our town is, to me, far greater than any simple gallery or performance venue. Iowa City has a continual tide of fresh minds flooding in and out, many eager for an opportunity to explore their potential. If a handful of these can latch like barnacles to the strong pier Kalmia and the team have extended into the cultural pool of the local art community, only to be released after their college stint and bring the PS1 mindset to other locales, then our waters grow deeper and more vibrantly defined.
Q5. PS1 x FUTURE: Do you ever feel like you’re standing at the edge of a cliff and you’re about to sprout wings? That’s how I feel when I think about the future of PS1. This nonstop team of “small a art” accessibility is making it astonishingly practical to engage with your creative side. These new house homes are set to become landmarks for our grandchildren; a place to make and ponder and learn and live. Unabashedly, I admit that I get goosebumps thinking about PS1 and realizing it has the hallmarks of the kinds of things you read about in art history books.
The recent addition of PATV to PS1’s toolkit rounds off all the amazingness you never thought you’d see in this life. I really really want there to be a weekly TV show encompassing many minds, and I’m pretty sure there are a few friends already working on it. Find a reason not to.