ARTIST OF THE WEEK: J.D. Casten

I’m an outsider artist (being diagnosed as schizophrenic – I hear voices, and they hear me think—also I’m also mostly self-taught) and I work frequently with digital manipulations of my original photography. Being at least a 5th generation Oregonian (even further if you consider my 1/32 Kalapooian Indian heritage) living in Eugene, I’m used to the rain and the all too shrinking beautiful nature of the Willamette valley and Oregon coast. I’m currently 41, but feel much like I’m at the 31 year old maturity level, having lost about a decade to strong anti-psychotic medications and endless television.

In my art, I try to deconstruct clichés and kitsch and illustrate my poetry and philosophy (I have a M.A. in philosophy and have focused on Derrida and Artificial Intelligence). I think clichés are underrated in their importance to “common sense”—something very hard to emulate on computers; and I try to refresh these often stale ideas and images. I also work with music; having released my second album “Melody Method” under my moniker “The Rhythm Messiahs” in late July, 2009; and have edited books for the artists Ana Voog, and Sara G. Umemoto as the Post Egoism Media publisher.



“Rose Colored Contact Lens”
JD Casten
Jan 2009
Click pic to see more of J.D.’s work.